June 19th is no longer just another day on the calendar in Iowa.

Thanks to legislation passed in April, the 19th of June is recognized as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in Iowa.

Juneteenth recognizes the final liberation of slaves in the United States, said Gary Lawson, chairman of the Iowa Juneteenth Committee.

While the Emanicipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, many slaves in the southwestern United States were not aware of the presidential order abolishing slavery in the Confederacy until much later, Lawson said.

“Slavery was alive and well in parts of the South long after the Civil War officially ended,” Lawson said.

Galveston, Texas, for example, was a major U.S. port that still relied on slave labor.

“Galveston was the last stronghold of slavery in the U.S.,” Lawson said, “until June 19th, 1865, which was two and a half years after slavery was supposed to have ended.”

He said on that date, Union Major General Gordon Granger entered the city of Galveston and read General Order #3, which established that “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 celebration that took place on that date was known as `Jubilee Days’,” Lawson said. “Later, the observance of the holiday was called `Juneteenth’.”

Iowa joins seven other states that recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. The other states include Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Delaware, Alaska, Idaho and California, Lawson said.

“It’s taken us 10 years to get to this point,” Lawson said. “It’s especially important here in Iowa because only 2 percent of the state is African-American.”

The Juneteenth state holiday falls on June 19, but the celebration traditionally takes place on the third Saturday in June. Juneteenth celebrations in Iowa will take place in Des Moines, Waterloo, and Burlington, Lawson said.

“The largest celebration will be in Des Moines,” he said. “It’s the 12th year for the celebration, and it should be the biggest one yet.”

Robert Perkins, graduate student in sociology, said he believes observing Juneteenth is just as important as the observation of July 4, the nation’s official celebration of independence.

“African-Americans have been historically left out of the fourth of July, since our freedom didn’t come until later,” Perkins said. “On Juneteenth, African-Americans can truly say, `This is our Independence Day.'”

Perkins said the celebration of Juneteenth is a good opportunity for Americans to celebrate black history.

“It’s wonderful in the sense that sometimes people tend to confine black history to just February,” Perkins said. “It’s important to be aware of other significant events that aren’t just limited to those 28 days.”

Lawson said he believes the observance of Juneteenth is an important way to mark the progress of African-Americans in the United States.

“Juneteenth is symbolic of how far [African-Americans] as a people have come since the days of slavery,” Lawson said. “We’ve been free for 137 years, but what have we done with our freedom? That’s something we all have to look at and think about.”

The Des Moines Juneteenth celebration will be held this Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. in Evelyn Davis Park, located at 16th Street and Forest Avenue in Des Moines.