——————————–REMEMBER JUNETEENTH——————————-

These soldiers were a unit of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) of the Union Army during the Civil War. They were just a few of the nearly 200,000 African-American volunteers–freedmen and escaped slaves—who, along with volunteers from Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa, served as the USCT, which made up 10% of the Union Army. They helped save the Union and fought bravely to end slavery. Forty thousand gave their lives, suffering the highest casualty rate of any group in the war. Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist and writer, himself an escaped slave, said, “He who would be free must himself strike the blow.” The USCT was truly the heroic embodiment of that philosophy.

JUNETEENTH  – June 19, 1865

The Day African-Americans Achieved Freedom from Slavery

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln declared on January 1, 1863 that all slaves were freed in states that were in rebellion. However, the promise of the Proclamation was not fulfilled until the Union Armies defeated the Confederate forces throughout the South in the spring of 1865, and, finally, until Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas on June 19th with nearly 2,000 Union soldiers and the last stronghold of slavery fell and the last 250,000 slaves held in Texas were freed. The Civil War won emancipation for 4 million African-Americans. Celebrate Juneteenth.

HAPPY JUNETEENTH!