Freedom Day

Juneteenth Graphic

Graphic by Omar Aguado/Office of Communications

McGovern Medical School wishes you and your family a happy Juneteenth.

Juneteenth marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States. Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday in 2021.