Juneteenth commemorates the day when the news of the end of slavery reached Galveston on June 19, 1865. Though a number of different dates surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation and the ratification of the 13th Amendment could be chosen as days to celebrate the end of slavery, Edward T. Cotham, Jr. says people immediately rallied around Juneteenth.
“And what’s really neat about Juneteenth is that the celebration of that event by the people who had actually been enslaved, had actually been emancipated, started almost immediately with incredible enthusiasm, and it’s carried forward ever since,” Cotham said.
Cotham is the author of “Juneteenth: The Story Behind The Celebration.” The Texas A&M University Press Consortium says it’s “the first scholarly book to delve into the history behind Juneteenth.”