NJEA joins people and organizations across the country celebrating the 160th Juneteenth, a date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

In 2020, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation officially recognizing Juneteenth as a public holiday in New Jersey. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making the date a federal holiday.

History of Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. He announced that the Civil War was over and that every enslaved person was free and had been in law, although not reality since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln two and a half years earlier.

Granger’s General Orders No. 3 announced:

“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 rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

With this announcement, the last enslaved people in the United States were free.

Juneteenth, a name that derives from the combination of June and nineteenth, is widely celebrated as the day slavery ended in the United States.

Today, Juneteenth is celebrated in a variety of ways, from educational events, festivals and parades, family gatherings and celebrations, community service activities, supporting Black-owned businesses, and visiting historical sites and museums.

There’s always more to learn about Black history, and it is integral to understanding American history and culture.

Here are resources to learn more:

Here are some powerful ways to honor Juneteenth in action:

  • Learn the full history of Juneteenth—not just the headline version.
  • Support Black-owned businesses, not just on Juneteenth, but year-round.
  • Read works by Black authors who challenge, inspire, and tell the truths we
    need to hear.
    • “Black Reconstruction”
    • by W. E. B. Du Bois
    • “A Black Woman’s History of the
      United States” by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross
    • “Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of
      Jim Crow” by Henry Louis Gates
    • “Libertie: A Novel” by Kaitlyn Greenidge
    • “Four Hundred Souls: A Community
    • History of African America, 1619-2019”
    • by Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
    • “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
    • “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song” edited by Kevin Young
    • “High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America”
      by Jessica B. Harris
  • Donate to organizations that are doing the daily work of justice and liberation

Classroom Resources