By: History.com Editors

1979

Texas passes a bill becoming the first state in the nation to make Juneteenth an official state holiday

History.com Editors

Published: March 02, 2021

Last Updated: January 31, 2025

A celebration that has persisted for over a century receives its first official recognition on June 7, 1979, as the Texas Legislature passes a bill declaring Juneteenth a state holiday. The annual June 19 celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation—not the announcement itself, but the arrival of the news of the proclamation in Texas—is now officially observed in almost all 50 states.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially freed the enslaved peoples of the rebellious Southern states on New Year’s Day of 1863, but the order only applied to territories currently held by the Confederacy. Southerners did not recognize Lincoln’s authority, and in many cases slaveowners and whites simply withheld the news from enslaved people. The wait was especially long in Texas, where news of slavery’s demise did not arrive until two months after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox ended the Civil War. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and proclaimed the news to the enslaved people there.

More to History: Juneteenth & Civil Rights

In the 1960s, Civil Rights Leaders brought the celebration of Juneteenth back into American life.

The day instantly became an important one to the African American citizens of Texas, who held annual celebrations and even made pilgrimages to Galveston each Juneteenth. In 1872, a group of Black ministers and businessmen purchased ten acres of land in Houston for the occasion, naming it Emancipation Park. Black communities across the nation continued to celebrate Juneteenth for the next century. The holiday received renewed interest with the rise of the civil rights Movement in the 1960s, particularly when Rev. Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference proclaimed Juneteenth “Solidarity Day” as part of his 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. Another civil rights leader, the recently-elected State Representative Al Edwards of Houston, introduced the bill making Juneteenth a paid holiday in the state of Texas. In the following decades, most of the country either made Juneteenth a holiday or declared it would officially observe the occasion, and parades and public celebrations have attracted larger and larger crowds.

What Is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth commemorates an effective end of slavery in the United States.

Former enslaved people, Juneteenth

By: Elizabeth Nix

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on June 7th

1692

Earthquake destroys Jamaican town

On June 7, 1692, a massive earthquake devastates the town of Port Royal in Jamaica, killing thousands. The strong tremors, soil liquefaction and a tsunami brought on by the earthquake combined to destroy the entire town.

1776

Lee Resolution presented to Continental Congress

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduces a resolution for independence to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; John Adams seconds the motion.

1866

Chief Seattle dies near the city named for him

Thirteen years after American settlers founded the city named for him, Chief Seattle dies in a nearby village of his people.

1893

Gandhi’s first act of civil disobedience

In an event that would have dramatic repercussions for the people of India, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a young Indian lawyer working in South Africa, refuses to comply with racial segregation rules on a South African train and is forcibly ejected at Pietermaritzburg.

1913

First successful ascent of Denali

On June 7, 1913, Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, leads the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley), the highest point on the North American continent at 20,320 feet.

Denali National Park

1937

Actress Jean Harlow, 26, dies suddenly

On June 7, 1937, Hollywood is shocked to learn of the sudden and tragic death of the actress Jean Harlow, who succumbs to uremic poisoning (now better known as acute renal failure, or acute kidney failure) at the age of 26.

1939

King George VI becomes the first British monarch to visit the U.S.

King George VI becomes the first reigning British monarch to visit the United States when he and his wife, Elizabeth, cross the Canadian-U.S. border to Niagara Falls, New York. The royal couple subsequently visited New York City and Washington, D.C., where they called for a greater U.S. role in resolving the crisis in Europe. On June 12, they returned to Canada, where they embarked on their voyage home.

1942

Battle of Midway ends

On June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive U.S. victories in its war against Japan—comes to an end. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown, thus reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy.

1965

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Connecticut law banning contraception

On June 7, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Connecticut law banning contraception in the case Griswold vs. Connecticut. This landmark ruling regarding the right to privacy is cited in future significant cases, including Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973.

1966

Ronald Reagan nominated for governor of California

A former actor named Ronald Reagan receives the Republican nomination for governor of California on June 7, 1966. He won the election that November and was sworn in on January 2, 1967. Reagan’s tenure as the Golden State’s governor gave him credibility as a political leader, paving the way for his victory in the 1980 presidential election.

1968

Mr. Rogers airs special episode addressing the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

On June 7, 1968, two days after an assassin’s bullet felled Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, Fred Rogers, soft-spoken host of the children’s public television show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” dedicates an episode to explaining the national tragedy to his young, largely pre-school audience. Kennedy’s shocking murder, at a California campaign event, came just two months after the killing of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a national trauma that prompted riots in more than 100 American cities.

1976

“New York” magazine publishes the story that becomes “Saturday Night Fever”

The article that inspired the blockbuster movie Saturday Night Fever—"The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night," by journalist Nik Cohn—was published on this day in 1976 in the June 7 issue of New York magazine.

2002

Michael Skakel convicted of 1975 murder in Greenwich

On June 7, 2002, 41-year-old Michael Skakel is convicted in the 1975 murder of his former Greenwich, Connecticut, neighbor, 15-year-old Martha Moxley. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the wife of the late U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, was later sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

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Citation Information

Article title
Texas passes a bill becoming the first state in the nation to make Juneteenth an official state holiday
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 24, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 31, 2025
Original Published Date
March 02, 2021

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