What are your plans for tomorrow, Juneteenth?
For the first time, Alabama will officially close state offices June 19 to mark a day that commemorates the long-delayed enforcement of freedom for …
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What are your plans for tomorrow, Juneteenth?
For the first time, Alabama will officially close state offices June 19 to mark a day that commemorates the long-delayed enforcement of freedom for enslaved people in the United States.
Gov. Kay Ivey signed House Bill 165 into law May 8, making Juneteenth a permanent state holiday. Sponsored by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, the bill passed the House 85-4 and cleared the Senate 13-5, with several Republican lawmakers abstaining and all the no-votes coming from Republicans, including Rep. Shane Stringer, whose District 102 covers parts of Bay Minette and Stockton. Unlike earlier proposals, the measure avoids controversy by designating Juneteenth as a standalone observance, unlinked to Confederate memorial dates like Jefferson Davis's birthday.
Ivey has issued annual proclamations recognizing Juneteenth since former President Joe Biden signed legislation making it a federal holiday in 2021, but the state legislature never recognized it with a formal law.
Juneteenth, a blend of "June" and "Nineteenth," marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery — more than two years after then-President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. According to the National Park Service website, Juneteenth is one of the oldest known commemorations tied to the abolition of slavery.
Lincoln's proclamation, issued Jan. 1, 1863, declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territories to be free. But in Texas, far removed from Union control, the order went largely unenforced. It wasn't until Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived with federal troops on June 19, 1865, that the message was publicly read and upheld. Roughly 250,000 people remained enslaved there at the time.
According to History.com, some slaveholders withheld news of emancipation until after the year's harvest. Still, word spread quickly. Freedmen in Texas began marking June 19 with annual celebrations first known as Jubilee Day. As Black families migrated from Texas to other parts of the country, Juneteenth traditions traveled with them, often centered around prayer services, music, food and community gatherings.
Alabama's official recognition reflects a broader effort to confront the state's own Civil War history — including Baldwin County's role in some of the conflict's final and most brutal battles.
In August 1864, Union Adm. David Farragut led a fleet into Mobile Bay near Fort Morgan to cut off Confederate shipping. The ironclad USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank in the channel, entombing its crew. The wreckage remains off Baldwin County's coast, according to the Baldwin County Commission website.
According to the county's website, the war stretched into the following spring. Union Gen. Edward Canby launched a campaign to break through Confederate defenses around Mobile. On April 9, 1865, Union forces stormed Fort Blakeley, an abandoned village turned earthwork fortress. The battle was one of the war's last and deadliest, with an estimated 4,475 soldiers killed or wounded on both sides.
Later that same day, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War.
The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, formally abolished slavery in the United States.
More than 150 years later, Juneteenth endures as a reminder that the path to freedom for many was delayed — not denied — and that recognizing that truth is essential to understanding American history.