06/19/2026
Today We Honor Juneteenth
Today, June 19, we recognize Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and celebrates freedom, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of equality.
On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people were free under General Orders No. 3. Although President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier, freedom was not fully realized in many parts of the Confederacy until the Civil War ended and Union troops arrived to enforce it.
Juneteenth has been celebrated by African American communities for generations and remains the longest-running African American holiday. It is both a celebration of freedom and an opportunity to reflect on our nation’s history and the ongoing work of preserving and understanding it.
Here in the South Carolina Lowcountry, these stories are woven into the fabric of our shared past. The Heyward House property includes an original enslaved persons’ dwelling, a tangible reminder of the lives, labor, and experiences of enslaved people whose stories remain an essential part of Bluffton’s history. As we preserve historic places and share the stories connected to them, we recognize the importance of remembering all voices that shaped our communities and our nation.
Today, we honor those who endured, those who persevered, and those whose pursuit of freedom helped shape the America we know today.
