The Juneteenth celebration in local Snohomish County communities will be a festival of rich virtual and in-person activities.

Juneteenth marks the official end of slavery in the Confederacy some two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. However, not all Black people were immediately free in Texas, as the state was still under Confederate control at the time of the signing. On June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), about 2,000 Union troops marched into Texas, officially liberating all Black people from slavery.