Juneteenth is a day of remembrance, learning, and community. It honors the end of slavery in the United States—and reminds us that freedom and justice have not always arrived equally or at the same time for everyone. Juneteenth (short for “June nineteenth”) is observed each year on June 19. It marks the day in 1865 when many enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas learned that slavery had ended. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, it was not enforced