Holiday marks the day when liberation was announced to last of enslaved people in Texas.

 Senator Warren Limmer released the following statement to recognize and celebrate Juneteenth:

“Not all confederate states were willing to take part in Republican President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation signed in April 1862. Stubbornly, Texas was the state that stood against the act the longest until Union troops entered the state and announced to a shocked slave population that they were free on June 19th, 1865. As part of the Union Army, Minnesota troops contributed greatly to the cause of freedom.

“Long overdue as it is, Juneteenth surely should be celebrated today!”