19 facts related to Juneteenth

The abolition of slavery in the United States marked the end of a long and winding road. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, a point in time when the American Civil War had already been raging for years. President Lincoln’s proclamation declared that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State… in rebellion… shall be then, thenceforward, a…