MILWAUKEE — Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, the 50th Milwaukee Juneteenth Parade kicked off. It’s one of the longest running Juneteenth celebrations in the country. 

What You Need To Know

  • Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when Union Soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce enslaved people had been freed

  • Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021

“It’s a celebration of what our ancestors went through, and we’re celebrating that day of freedom,” said Stephanie Harris, who celebrated the day at the parade with her grandkids. 

It’s something she wished her own grandma was able to do. 

“Her mother was a slave,” Harris said. "Her mother was a slave.”

The Juneteenth celebration marks the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 to announce all slaves were free. 

That came two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

For Angela Granger and her family, the day is significant. 

“My last name Granger, is also my daughter’s last name. General [Gordon] Granger was the one who actually told the slaves in Texas they were free. So it has a very special meaning for us.”

She remembers when she found out the story of her last name. 

“A gentleman, I was at Sam’s Club, and a cashier noticed we had the same name. She asked us if we were related. I said, ’No, it was an older white gentleman.’ I thought the question was crazy,” Granger said. "He’s the one who actually told me the story where the last name came from and that the slaves were so happy that they were told they were freed, that they took his last name.”

Granger is glad to be able to share that history with her daughter, and now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, she hopes more people can learn the importance of the day, not just in African American history, but American history as a whole. 

“No matter what you look like, where you come from, what your background is, what your story is, it’s something very important in our nation’s history,” Granger said.