June 19th marks the federal and state holiday Juneteenth, which commemorates the day back in 1865 when the final slaves in Galveston learned about their freedom. The notice came years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The holiday, which falls on June 19, commemorates the historic day when more than 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston Bay, Texas, finally gained their freedom on June 19, 1865—two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation—and folks have been celebrating Juneteenth for 159 years since.