Mankato Free Press (June 19, 2021) — Mankato’s Juneteenth celebration Saturday took place just days after President Joe Biden signed the bill making the date a federal holiday.
“It’s considered the longest running African American holiday in the United States,” said Brooklyn Center city manager and former Mankato resident Reggie Edwards.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.