On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect and enslaved people in the Confederate States were declared legally free. But “legally” and “actually” are two different realities. Emancipation arrived belatedly to communities still under Confederate control. In fact it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union troops marched into Galveston Bay, Texas, that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the Confederacy’s westernmost state were finally informed that they were free by executive decree. This occasion, both gloriously celebratory and unforgivably deferred, came to be known by the linguistic portmanteau “Juneteenth,” and the day has come to be recognized as the second American Independence Day, officially designated a federal holiday in 2021.