Embracing Juneteenth. A time for reflection, education, celebration, and action

Although it’s been celebrated by the Black community for more than 150 years, this year marks the first time Juneteenth will be observed as an official state holiday in Washington.

It commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. June 19, 1865, is the day the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that enslaved people in the state were free.

While some enslavers were aware of the Emancipation Proclamation, it took two and a half years for it to be enforced by the arrival of the Union army, according to Mary Elliott, curator of American Slavery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Celebrations are taking place throughout the Seattle area, including the One Seattle Juneteenth Celebration, at McCaw Hall Auditorium on Sunday evening.