NY Finally Recognizes Juneteenth
It's official: Gov. George Pataki has signed legislation establishing June 19 as "Juneteenth Freedom Day" in New York -- welcome news for organizers of Saturday's local holiday celebration. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day a Union Army general rode into Galveston, Texas, to inform the last slaves that they were free -- more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. [ more]