06/19/2026
Juneteenth. Freedom Day.
Today we pause to honor Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally received word that they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed. General Order No. 3 was read aloud on June 19th, and with it, the last 250,000 enslaved people in the Confederacy learned what had already been law. The delay was not accidental. It was enforcement withheld.
Freedom has never been abstract. It is specific. It has dates, names, places, and people who fought to make sure the truth could not be buried indefinitely. Juneteenth exists because communities refused to let that moment be forgotten. They gathered, they cooked, they prayed, they celebrated, and they passed the story down. Generation after generation kept this history alive long before it was recognized by a single state, let alone a nation.
That is the work of memory. And memory is resistance.
We’re grateful to be part of a city like Baltimore, built on deep history and community. Today we celebrate that, and the people who kept the flame alive.
🌿 See you at the table.