| Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865, the day that Union General Gordon Grainger rode into Galveston Bay, Texas and read Executive Order #3, proclaiming "all slaves are free." Executive Order #3 came two years, six months and eighteen days after the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 in which President Abraham Lincoln granted freedom to all slaves in the confederate states. |
