ARCHIVE – New Birth of Freedom Council, BSA Website for the New Birth of Freedom Council, BSA
The Mechanicsburg Service Center and Scout Shop will be closed on Wednesday, June 19, commemorating the Juneteenth holiday.
Classroom textbooks have taught us that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, marked the end of slavery in America. Although this is true on paper, it didn’t translate in practice. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865—2 years after the signature of the Emancipation Proclamation—that slavery effectively ended in America.
Therefore, Juneteenth commemorates the end of Slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger and Union Soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced to the last 250,000 or so enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were now free.
The Juneteenth holiday is also known as Emancipation Day, Juneteenth Independence, or Black Independence Day.
