Today is Juneteenth, a newly-minted federal holiday just a couple of years old, but a holiday steeped in tradition and celebration for African-American communities dating back to June 19, 1865, when federal officers arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that Black people enslaved in that state were free. It has been marked as a "second independence day" since then. From the Biden Administration's proclamation: On June 19, 1865, freedom finally came for the 250,000 enslaved people of Texas.