Why is the holiday called “Juneteenth”, and how did it come to be celebrated outside of Texas?

by i_post_gibberish

I know what it celebrates, and of course I know Juneteenth is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth, but why is it just named after the date rather than being Emancipation Day or Liberation Day or something? And why is it the celebration of emancipation, rather than the date of the Emancipation Proclamation or the Thirteenth Amendment or something?

I’m Canadian, so forgive me if this stuff is already widely-known in the US; Wikipedia doesn’t seem to have anything.

jschooltiger

Hi, we ran a thread on this topic about a year ago, which we plan to re-up this year. Thanks for asking the question!