Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating June 1865 when enslaved African-Americans in Texas learned that they were free, will close most banks, schools and other offices on Monday.
Because the date fell on Sunday this year, the holiday wil be recognized on Monday.
In New York, Huntington Town Hall and other government buildings will be closed, public school students, Wall Street workers and many others will get the day off. Trash pickup, however, will continue on schedule Monday.
Enslaved people in Texas were not told that they were free until two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and two months after the end of the Civil War.
Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his soldiers went to Galveston and announced on June 19, 1865, that the Civil War was over, and that the enslaved were free.
Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
A Juneteenth celebration was held in Huntington at Mt. Calvary Holy Church and Tulsa, J. D. Lawrence’s film about the racial attack on an area of Tulsa known as the Black Wall Street, was shown Friday.