Behind the Doodle: 155th Anniversary of Juneteenth

Today’s video Google Doodle, illustrated by Los Angeles-based guest artist Loveis Wise and narrated by actor and activist LeVar Burton, honors the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. Short for “June Nineteenth,” Juneteenth marks the true end of chattel slavery across the United States— which didn’t actually occur until 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Specifically, it marks the day when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas (one of the westernmost points in the Confederate South) finally received news of their liberation.

Learn more: http://www.google.com/doodles/155th-anniversary-of-juneteenth

CREDIT: "Lift Every Voice and Sing" poem written by James Weldon Johnson (1900)

Various archival images courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Explore the historical legacy of Juneteenth with their new exhibit on Google Arts & Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/_QUh41SUsLCX6w

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