JUNETEENTH  Galveston TX - Celebrated on June 19, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It is the name given to Emancipation Day (or Freedam Day) by African-Americans in in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in town and read General Order #3 to the people of Galveston.