Racial Equity

Emancipation Days: The 20th of May, Juneteenth, and Why Both Matter

June 16, 2022

GALVESTON, TEXAS – JUNE 19: Community member Rebecca Jones participates in a service at the Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church on June 19, 2022 in Galveston, Texas. Galveston island is the birthplace of Juneteenth, the oldest known nationally celebrated event commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation stated that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the U.S. should be set free, but it was not until 2 years later, in 1865, that Galveston island gained its freedom. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)