Junteenth

Juneteenth (19 June 1865) is one of the oldest-known celebrations to commemorate the end of enslavement. It is celebrated primarily in Texas as that was the day many enslaved Texans learned that they had been freed. Numerous tales attempt to explain the two-year delay between Abraham Lincoln’s Executive Order 1 January 1863 and the day the Texans heard the news. Many continue to make the annual pilgrimage to Galveston, the city where General Gordon Granger of the Union made t he freedom announcement, to celebrate the day. While not as popular as Kwanzaa, Juneteenth is celebrated by African Americans throughout the United States with numerous cultural events. Because of its Texas roots, most menus for the event include barbecue spare ribs or chicken. William Wiggins recorded that his first Juneteenth celebrations included many foods familiar to African American southerners, “platter of barbecued chicken, long link sausages and brisket-sized chunks of beef, bowls of steaming brown beans seasoned with hunks of jowl bacon, a cold apple, lettuce, and mayonnaise salad, trays of white ‘store-bought’ bread, frosty pitcher of red lemonade, jugs of homemade blackberry wine, and a pan of peach cobbler”.