Juneteenth represents the long-delayed freedom of enslaved Black people in the United States. But Juneteenth isn’t just a day to celebrate. For me, it’s a marker—a moment to remember what came right after emancipation.

At the Juneteenth Cookout, families, adults and teenagers gathered together to celebrate the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

NATIONWIDE — June 19 – otherwise known as Juneteenth — marks the official end of slavery in the United States. Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it wasn’t until June 1865 — more than two years later — that the final enforcement of the law reached Galveston Bay, Texas.