Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Here's some of its history, and how it came to be a national holiday. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states — on paper, at least.

"Modern descriptions of American slavery often paint the North as slavery-free, abolitionist states, but this isn’t true."