Governor Newsom proclaims Juneteenth Day of Observance
Sacramento, California – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring “Juneteenth National Freedom Day: A Day of Observance” in the State of California.
The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:
PROCLAMATION
July 4 is not the only day America celebrates its independence. Each year on June 19, we look back to this day in 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and the insidious institution of slavery. Thousands of enslaved people in Texas, among the last to learn of their independence, were finally freed, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Over the next several decades, Black Americans who journeyed out of the South in search of better lives brought Juneteenth celebrations with them. The thousands who settled in California, especially in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, taught our state that America’s struggle for freedom did not end in 1776 or 1865, but continues to this day.
California is proud to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday, honoring the centuries of struggles and triumphs that have brought us to this moment. Misguided efforts to rewrite our nation’s history make our state’s commitment to confronting the dark chapters of our past all the more important, as we move forward in pursuit of a more perfect union.
This Juneteenth, I urge all Californians to reflect on the ongoing cause of freedom for Black Americans – remembering that, though General Granger’s announcement in 1865 called for “absolute equality,” that vision was, and remains, far from complete. Let us celebrate how far we have come and take stock of how far we must go to truly realize our nation’s founding ideals.
NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 19, 2025 as “Juneteenth National Freedom Day: A Day of Observance.”
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 27th day of May 2025.
GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State