In 2021, Juneteenth became a Federal holiday in the U.S. But what is Juneteenth and why is it so important? At the end of the Civil War, even though slavery was technically illegal, it still persisted in Confederate States. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger marched into Galveston, Texas and announced that all enslaved people were officially free. To commemorate emancipation, people in Texas began celebrating Juneteenth, a combination of June and 19th, on the very first anniversary of the announcement. Today, Juneteenth holds profound significance as a celebration of the pursuit of true freedom for all and a continued pledge to remember the past.