For Juneteenth, the kids participated in a collaborative group project where they connected through art by coloring themed pages that celebrated freedom, unity and African-American culture.
They also created vibrant paper lanterns, symbolizing hope and resilience, as part of a hands-on activity to honor the holiday and its significance.
“Juneteenth” combines the words “June” and “nineteenth” to commemorate the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas first found out they were free. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, signed two years earlier in 1863, stated the intention that slavery would be abolished in Confederate states. The Confederate states included Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.
The Emancipation Proclamation, however, did not take full effect until after the Union (North) won the Civil War on April 9, 1865. Radios and televisions were not around to broadcast daily news in 1865. So,
information about the Union’s victory and the liberation of all enslaved people did not reach outlying areas for months. Some of the last people to be informed were in Texas. On June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, announcing that the approximately 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were now free.
The Juneteenth holiday, sometimes called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, celebrates this day of
emancipation for the enslaved people of Texas. Juneteenth became an official Texas holiday on January 1, 1980. On June 15, 2021, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday celebrated in every state. President Joseph Biden signed the bill into law two days later.
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- Learning about the significance of Juneteenth.
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- Our Kids had some fun coloring to do to commemorate Juneteenth.
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- Awesome job!
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