Juneteenth | Historical Context

Pre-Civil Rights Movement America and the Emancipation Proclamation
The title of this novel is pulled from a moment in history known as Juneteenth. The term refers to June 19, 1865. Although Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it took nearly two and a half years for the news to spread. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and, along with it, slavery. The enslaved were elated. Many moved north as it symbolized freedom. Others left for the deeper South to try and...

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