By Alyssah Hall | Black Voice News
June 18, 2025
Alyssah Hall
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, freeing enslaved Black people. Over two years after the proclamation was announced, on June 19, 1865, a Union Army general went to Texas and ordered that the state’s 250,000 plus enslaved people also be set free.
While many Black folks have historically celebrated Juneteenth as the official day that slavery “ended”, it has only been a federal holiday for four years. Former President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act with members of Congress at the White House on June 17, 2021.
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January and his Project 2025 agenda which seeks to demolish Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives (DEI), a framework used to counteract discrimination against minorities, went into full effect. As a result, many corporations such as Target and Walmart, influenced by the president, scaled back their formerly championed DEI goals and initiatives.
