As Alabama prepares to observe Juneteenth as an official state holiday for the second year, the annual commemoration continues to highlight a pivotal moment in American history — the day freedom finally reached the last large group of enslaved people in the Confederacy.

Observed each year on June 19, Juneteenth traces its origins to 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people were free. The announcement came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the Civil War had effectively ended.

According to the National Park Service, Juneteenth is one of the nation's oldest celebrations marking the abolition of slavery. Lincoln's proclamation, issued Jan. 1, 1863, declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territories free. However, enforcement depended on the presence of Union troops, and in Texas, slavery continued largely unchanged during much of the war.

That changed when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, and issued General Order No. 3, informing residents that all enslaved people were free. Historians estimate that approximately 250,000 people remained enslaved in Texas at the time.

According to History.com, some slaveholders withheld news of emancipation, allowing forced labor to continue even after the Confederacy's defeat. Once word spread, newly freed Black Texans began holding annual celebrations known as Jubilee Day, gathering for prayer services, music, food and community events.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed legislation recognizing the day nationwide. Alabama followed in 2024 when Gov. Kay Ivey signed House Bill 165, making Juneteenth a permanent state holiday. State offices first closed in observance of the holiday last year.

The story of Juneteenth is also connected to Alabama's Civil War history.

In August 1864, Union Adm. David Farragut led a fleet into Mobile Bay near Fort Morgan in a decisive battle that helped close one of the Confederacy's last major Gulf Coast ports. During the battle, the USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank. Its wreck remains off the Baldwin County coast.

The war continued into the spring of 1865. On April 9, Union forces captured Fort Blakeley near Mobile after one of the conflict's final major battles. Thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded during the fighting. Later that same day, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, formally abolished slavery in the United States.

More than 160 years after the events in Galveston, Juneteenth remains a commemoration of freedom delayed, the end of slavery and a defining chapter in the nation's history.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared in The Onlooker, The Islander and The Courier on June 18, 2025, and has been updated.