The emancipation proclamation was one of President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest achievements. It helped start the movement of equal rights for all former slaves. The emancipation proclamation is a document issued on September 22, 1862 it became active on January 1, 1863. The emancipation proclamation talks about how some of the slaves were freed in the south while some slaves in the border and union states were freed …show more content…
Slaves in Texas didn’t hear the news until two and a half years later on June 19, 1865 when General Gordan Granger told slaves in Texas that they were freed. Many African-Americans in Texas were so happy that they decided to make it a holiday by putting the words June and nineteenth together to make the word Juneteenth in honor of the day they heard the news that they were freed. It is also called Emancipation Day or Jun-Jun. Until African-Americans could own their own land they usually spent Juneteenth in rural or church grounds. After they owned their own land they started to dedicate land to celebrations. They could never celebrate Juneteenth without strawberry soda, barbequed pork, lamb, and beef. In some places the traditional drink was Big Red Soda. Due to African-Americans moving north in the early 1900’s and many other problems Juneteenth became to fade away. But later on the poor people’s campaign influenced people to bring it back. In Minneapolis and Milwaukee some of the biggest celebrations take place. In 1980 Juneteenth became an official holiday. Juneteenth is now either a major or minor holiday thru the U.S.. This year in 2016 it will be the 151st anniversary of