Harkin's resolution comes just days before the annual celebration of Juneteenth, which is usually recognized on June 19. Juneteenth, also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, celebrates the day in 1865 that Union Maj. Gen. 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 mark Juneteenth as 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, of Houston, who orchestrated state legislation that deemed Juneteenth an official state holiday, is now working on a bill that would fund monuments placed on state grounds in Austin and Galveston.