Juneteenth celebrates when slaves in Texas learned that they were, in actuality, free after the lifelong work of abolitionists, war heroes, presidents, and civil rights leaders. General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas to enforce Lincoln's proclamation more than two years after it was announced; that day, June 19, was remembered in slave narratives as a day when "We all walked down the road singing and shouting to beat the band," recalled one Texas freedwoman, Molly Harrell, in The Slave Narratives of Texas, a book based on a thirties-era federal oral-history project. Said another, Lou Smith: "I ran off and hid in the plum orchard and said over `n' over, `I'se free, I'se free; I ain't never going back to Miss Jo.'"
It arose from Texas. At various times in the twentieth century, notably during both world wars, organized observances of Juneteenth were intermittent but always attracted throngs. In Dallas a 1936 gala at the state fairgrounds drew 200,000 visitors. Because segregation was a long-established policy, Juneteenth was often the only day blacks could enter many attractions; in Fort Worth, for example, they could visit the botanical gardens only on June 19. White merchants, however, cheerfully capitalized on the commercial opportunities. During the thirties, Foley's offered a special sale on "silk frocks" for the big day, Mrs. Baird's claimed its bread "goes mighty fine with barbecue," and railroads offered special rates for day trips.
Over time, the movement spread past the borders of Texas. By the 1970s, politicians were making it a local and state-wide holiday in places like Atlanta and Charleston, SC. 
But there was more to be done. The "grandmother of the movement," Opal Lee, watched white rioters burn her home to the ground in 1939 while growing up in Marshall, Texas. When she eventually made her home in Fort Worth, she watched a new generation take up the cause of the Juneteenth celebration as a way to celebrate the freedom so dearly won. In 2016, she laced up her shoes and wrote a letter to then-President Obama: "You could save me a lot of shoe leather and a lot of wear and tear on an old body by saying how soon you can see me." Then she began a 1,400 mile trek from her home to Washington DC. Even though health concerns stopped her from completing the full journey, she continued to walk 2.5 miles -- symbolic of the 2.5 years when slaves in Texas were not told about the proclamation -- in every major city and at all major festivals. When President Biden signed the national holiday into law, the grandmother of the movement was there -- shoes laced up and all.
Today, Juneteenth is celebrated with national and regional events, including
- a national music festival in Denver CO, a dynamic community event which annually attracts 50,000 people
- Affrilachian poetry at the Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center in Lexington, guest speakers Kentucky Poets Laureate Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X. Walker
- a cornbread competition in conjunction with the African American school and museum the Calfee Community Center and the Wilderness Road Museum, Pulaski, VA
- Juneteenth Jubilee Freedom Weekend, in Detroit MI, with a theme of economic development and empowerment