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Juneteenth celebrated in Milton

July 4, 2014

The Sussex County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority held its annual Juneteenth celebration June 21 at Memorial Park in Milton. The event is celebrated yearly to perpetuate freedom to young people. Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of slaves in Texas, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, abolishing slavery. The slaves in Texas were never made aware to their freedom. On June 18-19, 1865, General Gordon Granger, with 2,000 troops, arrived in Galveston, Texas to take posseion of the confederate state and to enforce the emancipation of its slaves. He read the famous "General Order No.3" from the excutive office of the United States, stating that they were free.

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