A block party and guided tours of the African American Heritage Trail from noon until 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, 2021 will mark Juneteenth, a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved people. The free event open to the public will include food and dancing will be in Douglass Park, according to a June 9, 2021 Columbia Missourian article.

Boone County offices and Missouri state offices were closed on Friday, June 18, 2021 to commemorate the new national holiday. The U.S. Legislature passed the bill making it a federal holiday on June 16, 2021, and President Joe Biden signed it into law on June 17.

Juneteenth refers to the date June 19, 1865 as “the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed,” according to History.com.

Some accounts note June 19, 1865 is two and a half years after the Jan. 1, 1863 signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. Yet, note the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the states in rebellion and could only be enforced when Union forces took control of an area. Also, the Emancipation Proclamation also did not the roughly 4 million enslaved people in the U.S., as explained on History.com

Also, end of the Civil War took place in several steps. The signing of surrender by Robert E. Lee was on April 9, 1965, and on April 12, 1865, the On April 12, the Army of Northern Virginia formally surrendered, according to the National Park Service’s Civil War timeline.

Another step toward the end of the Civil War took place on June 2, 1865 when the terms of surrender of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi were signed.