Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, is a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the war had ended and that those enslaved were now free. The celebration of Juneteenth amid the events of 2020 reminds us that freedom for Black Americans was delayed and resisted. Although decades of progress followed, the fight for equality is far from over, and we are all called to join
