“The people of Texas are informed that … all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights … between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.” — General Order No. 3, issued June 19, 1865
Such was the order that officially ended slavery and freed all enslaved people in the United States. It’s that order that Key West and communities throughout the country commemorate annually with Juneteenth celebrations on June 19.
Key West’s Juneteenth ceremony was initially scheduled to take place, as it has for the past decade or so, at the African Memorial Cemetery at Higgs Beach. But an accumulation of rotting sargassum (seaweed) on the beach and the odor it emits prompted officials to move the ceremony to City Hall.
The event still included an African dance, poetry readings, a short lecture by historian Corey Malcom, and remarks by city commissioner Aaron Castillo, who accepted a Juneteenth proclamation from Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez.
“Every year it gives me great honor to receive this proclamation,” Castillo said. “Let’s just try and get along and honor the freedom that we have every day.”
What is Juneteenth?
For generations, American schoolchildren learned that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in America. But it didn’t — and wouldn’t for another 2½ years.
Lincoln issued the proclamation in 1863 while the Union and Confederacy were still locked in the Civil War. The Confederate states did not recognize Union laws, so slavery continued until Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, making the Emancipation Proclamation the law in all states.
But it took more than two months for the people of Texas, including the 250,000 who were enslaved there, to learn that the war — and slavery — were over. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger delivered the news and Juneteenth celebrations have been occurring in local communities ever since. President Joe Biden made Juneteenth — occurring annually on June 19 — a federal holiday in 2021.
