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TRAVERSE CITY — June 19 will mark the third year that Juneteenth is being recognized as a federal holiday.

It’s a celebration of the freeing of enslaved people at the end of the Civil War. In Michigan, it has been a recognized holiday since 2005.

Locally, the celebrations will start early. In fact, this afternoon, Northern Michigan E3 and TART Trails will host a Juneteenth Run/Walk/Stroll. Participants will gather at Right Brain Brewery beginning at 1:15 p.m. and journey around the Boardman Lake Loop Trail at 2 p.m. TART Trails will have a refreshments table at Medalie Park. Northwestern Michigan College will host its annual celebration on Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Founder’s Hall.

E3 is a main organizer of these events. Holly T. Bird, a founding council member of E3, said she celebrates the holiday by lifting up her Black relatives.

“We live in a community that’s becoming more diverse every day,” Bird said. “Celebrating that diversity is not only good for our economy, but for the people in the community.”

The celebration is in its fifth year. Marshall Collins, a council member of E3, said attendance increases every year people come for the discussion, food and music.

“More people are asking about it, more people are going to come,” he said. “… For me, it’s something I’ve completely embraced and something I love doing for our community.”

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, but news traveled slow in the 1800s. The proclamation was read aloud from a balcony by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, to end the Civil War.

“Juneteenth is really the day that the enforcement of the end of slavery finally took hold in all 50 states,” Bird said.