Selectboard Issues Statement Recognizing and Celebrating Juneteenth in Princeton, MA

Town of Princeton Recognizing and Celebrating Juneteenth in Princeton, MA

Each year, Juneteenth – also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day – commemorates and celebrates the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865 announcement by Union Army General Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had officially outlawed slavery in Texas and the other states in rebellion against the Union almost two and a half years earlier. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied on the advance of Union troops. Texas, being one of the most remote of the slave states, had a low presence of Union troops as the U.S. Civil War ended; thus enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent before Granger’s announcement. Although Juneteenth generally celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, it was still legal and practiced in two Union border states (Delaware and Kentucky) until later that year when ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished chattel slavery nationwide in December of that year.

Celebrations date to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. By the 21st century, Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities across the United States.

On July 24th, 2020 Governor Baker signed into law Juneteenth as a State holiday in the Commonwealth.

On June 17, 2021 President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act making June 19th the eleventh American federal holiday.

The Selectboard of the Town of Princeton recognizes this very important holiday and urges all Citizens of Princeton to celebrate and reflect on the importance of this day in American History.  We recognize there is still more work to be done to fulfill the promises in our Constitution that all people are treated equally in the United States.