Other than Martin Luther King Jr. Day, there are no federal holidays that celebrate the accomplishments and contributions Blacks have made to this country.  But 29 states are now recognizing Juneteenth (June 19) as a day to celebrate the end of more than 200 years of slavery in America.  Vermont, one of the whitest states in the country, just this month made Juneteenth an official state holiday, according to the Rutland Herald.  Vermont's population is 96.7 percent white and 0.7 percent Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Vermont prides itself on being one of the first states to abolish slavery, so I think it's quite fitting that we make it a state holiday," said Shirley Boyd-Hill, chair of the state's Juneteenth Committee, during the bill-signing ceremony earlier this month.  "And because Vermont is increasingly attracting more African Americans, I think it's quite fitting that we have our own holiday."

Juneteenth, also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, celebrates the day in 1865 that Union Major General Gordon Granger and his 2,000 troops arrived in Galveston Island, Texas to take possession of the state from Confederate troops and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.  The Proclamation had abolished slavery in the United States two years earlier.

Granger proclaimed: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

Upon hearing the news, former slaves celebrated in the streets. The following year, former slaves celebrated the anniversary of their being free, marking the first Juneteenth celebration.

 In 1980, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official state holiday.  In Galveston, where it all started, Juneteenth celebrations begin June 9 and end on June 19 with a public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. Texas Rep. Al Edwards from Houston, who orchestrated state legislation that deemed Juneteenth a state holiday, is now working on a bill that would fund monuments placed on state grounds in Austin and Galveston.

Click here to find out about other Juneteenth celebrations around the country.