Juneteenth, a blend of the words June and nineteenth, is an American holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862, freedom did not come to those still held in bondage in the resistant state of Texas until Union Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston on June 19, 1865, with 2,000 federal troops. From the balcony of the Ashton Villa, the first mansion built on the island, Gordon announced, “The people are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” With the announcement, the newly freed people flooded the streets in jubilant celebration. Juneteenth, known also as Freedom Day, was launched the following year.

Juneteenth embodies for many African-Americans what the July 4 holiday does for all Americans — liberation. It serves as a chronological turning point in the American drama about the triumph of the human spirit over the cruelty of slavery. Juneteenth is a time to pause and remember those African-Americans descendants who suffered and died, and to honor those who survived as living witnesses to the inhumane institution of slavery. It is a time to venerate the shining legacy of resistance and resilience of an abjectly oppressed people.

Sterling Morse, Coordinator for African American Intercultural Ministries, Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries, Presbyterian Mission Agency Adapted from a Minute for Mission: Juneteenth, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Thank you, O God, for your grace and redeeming love. Today we commemorate, with joy and thanksgiving, the shouts of the slaves in Texas who at last heard a declaration of freedom.

Amid the celebration of liberation over 150 years ago we pray for change. Hear the cries of those still in slavery throughout the world.

We still encounter you in the faces of those whom society has pushed to the margins.  Guide us, through the love you revealed through Jesus Christ, to establish justice so that all may dwell in harmony and peace.

Prayer adapted from Minute for Mission and Racial and Healing Liturgical Resources.