Let's Not Make Juneteenth Another ‘Hallmark Holiday,' Professor Says
After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slaves in Texas were not told they were free. Things didn't change until 1865 when troops arrived to ensure that. "You can in fact be free, but if you don't recognize it, you're going to live like an enslaved person," Emory University professor Andra Gillespie says about the history of Juneteenth.