Juneteenth 2021: How Harford County Marks The End Of Slavery

DARLINGTON, MD — With the stroke of his pen Thursday, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth an official annual holiday.

Hosanna School Museum will host its fifth annual Juneteenth celebration to put the spotlight on African American history, culture and achievement and recognize the end of slavery in the U.S.

This year's theme is "Celebrating the Black Family: Representation, Identity, Diversity."

Visit HosannaSchoolMuseum.org to register for the virtual event. It will feature storytelling, a virtual Black-owned business fair, music and a ceremony. The keynote speaker is Velma Maia Thomas, who wrote "Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation."

The Hosanna School Museum's virtual Juneteenth event will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 19.

Before Biden made Juneteenth an official holiday — something the Senate agreed to unanimously in a consent agreement and the House voted overwhelmingly for in a roll call vote — Juneteenth commemorations were held on June 19 to mark the end of slavery in the United States and the date many slaves in Texas finally found out they were free.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It is “a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings,” according to Juneteenth.com. In recent years, Juneteenth has commemorated African-American freedom, with an emphasis on education and achievement.

Juneteenth is held on June 19 because that was the date in 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were free. Many of the slaves in Texas had not known of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had actually given them freedom more than two years earlier.

Granger read “General Order No. 3,” which stated, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves,” according to the city of Galveston, which has an historical marker for its connection to the holiday.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor and African American historian, wrote in The Root magazine that Juneteenth is “an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-importance and racial uplift.”

In 1980, Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a holiday. In the time since, 45 other states have decided to officially recognize the day, according to The New York Times.

More and more places are recognizing Juneteenth as an official holiday.

Maryland will recognize Juneteenth as a legal holiday this year, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday.

Annapolis will host Maryland’s first Juneteenth festival with a parade through the state capital.

"This is an important step forward for our country," Hogan said in a statement. "Maryland is proud to support this legislation, and observe this new national holiday."

Some major American brands — Twitter, Nike and the National Football League, included — have made Juneteenth a paid company holiday.

Related:

• Hosanna School Museum Hosts 5th Annual Juneteenth Celebration
• Juneteeth Recognized As MD Holiday, State Marks End Of Slavery
• What Is Juneteenth? 5 Things To Know About The Holiday That Marks The End Of Slavery

— By Tim Moran and Elizabeth Janney