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Juneteenth Holiday Marks Nationwide Emancipation

June 14, 2025

A group photograph of thirty-one people at a Juneteenth Celebration in Emancipation Park in Houston’s Fourth Ward in 1880.

June 19, 2025, marks the 160-year anniversary of the date Union soldiers marched into Galveston, Texas, to inform the last of the country’s enslaved people that they had been freed by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation two years prior. In 2021, former President Joe Biden declared that day – June 19th – a federal holiday, known as Juneteenth. In February 2022, South Dakota became the final state in the nation to acknowledge Juneteenth as a state holiday as well.

The Emancipation Proclamation, signed on January 1,1863, during America’s Civil War, originated as a war-time measure by President Abraham Lincoln, declaring that all people held as slaves within Confederate states were to be free, and authorizing Black men to serve in the Union military. When Union troops marched into Galveston on June 19, 1865, a large proportion of the 2,000 Union soldiers were Black, which is of particular significance to the legacy of Juneteenth. While the Emancipation Proclamation itself did not end slavery nationwide, it provided the groundwork for the eventual passage of the 13th Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, ending slavery permanently in the United States.

As the state which proudly honors The Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, on Mount Rushmore, South Dakota further recognizes his legacy through the acknowledgment of this holiday.

“Juneteenth isn’t just important for Black Americans in this country, but for all of us,” said Stacy Chidaushe, SDHC Program Coordinator. “The holiday commemorates and honors the painful struggle for freedom and equality by those formerly enslaved in this country but also acknowledges the ongoing and continued quest for equality and justice for all people in the United States regardless of race, creed, or background – a journey we’re all taking together. SDHC is proud to have a role in acknowledging that journey.”

Several Juneteenth celebrations are planned throughout South Dakota and the nation to commemorate the holiday. As it is both a federal and state holiday, all federal and state government offices are closed Thursday, and the SDHC office will be closed, as well.

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