Parades across the United States have commemorated Juneteenth.

The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and the celebrations now take place all over the country.

Do we have a lot more to do? Oh yeah. Are we where we're supposed to be? Not yet.

How is a 156 year old holiday only officially turning two years old?

Today, we're looking ahead to Juneteenth.

I'm Bethany Van Delft.

It's Thursday, June 16th, and this is the 10 News.

For descendants of individuals, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

For descendants of enslaved Africans living in the U.S., Juneteenth is both a somber day

and a celebration. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed all enslaved people in the United

States, but the civil War was still happening.

That meant people living in Confederate states, including enslaved black people, were still subject to Confederate laws.

So even though the laws said enslaved people were free, in reality they were not.

What?

Then when the war ended in April of 1865, inslavers didn't want to lose the free labor and power

they had, so they simply didn't tell the people they enslaved about the emancipation

proclamation.

Are you kidding me?

Of course, there were no phones or internet, so news only traveled by word of mouth, and the

news hadn't reached Texas yet. But finally, on June 19, 1865, two years after the law was

passed, and two months after the war ended, the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas learned

the truth, that they were free yes one year later june

...