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Juneteenth is an American holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. It is called Independence Day or Freedom Day. This was the day recognized as the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans throughout the former Confederacy of the southern United States.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, during the American Civil War, declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed. The States that were not part of this agreement included: Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, West Virginia, the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana, and Southeast Virginia.

The newly free slaves soon learned that their fight for freedom did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation. In the early 20th century, economic and political power led to a decline in Juneteenth. Later, between 1890 and 1908, all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively disenfranchised black people and excluded them from the political process. It was during this period that the White-dominated state legislatures passed Jim Crow laws imposing second-class status. Then came the Great Depression that made many black people to leave the farms and to look toward the major cities in search of work. The Second Great Migration of Black Americans started during World War II, when many black people migrated to the West Coast where there were many job openings in the defense industry.

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