Today is Juneteenth, the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrived two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered by many to be the Second Independence Day. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday. We talked with journalists, scholars, and people on the street about their thoughts on Juneteenth.
