The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University

June 19, 1865 * ALWAYS REMEMBER *** NEVER FORGET * June 19, 2020 Today is June 19 th , better known as Juneteenth . The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice joins the national movement to officially recognize June 19 as a federal holiday. We honor the day when in 1865, 155 year ago today , the last known enslaved people in the state of Texas learned of their freedom. During the height of the Civil War, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln warned confederate rebels that if they did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation to free all enslaved people in the rebellious states. As we all know, the Civil War did not officially end until April 9, 1865. Somehow Texas was the only confederate state that did not get the memo. Enslaved people from other confederate states had known of their emancipation from slavery for nearly two and a half years before the enslaved people