SMARTY Q: What is Juneteenth?

Trusty Narrator· Host0:00

[upbeat music] Hey there, smartypants. Trusty Narrator here, back with another episode of Smarty Cue, where I answer the awesome questions asked by you, the smartypants. And today, we've got some great ones, including a special holiday, mythical creatures, video games, and soap. Lots of questions. So let's get smarting. Our first question comes from Vishal VP, who asks, "How did Juneteenth originate?" Great question, VP. Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Here's how it happened. During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued something called the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. It declared that enslaved people in the Confederate States were free, but there was a problem. News traveled slowly back then, and the Civil War was still going on. In many places, enslaved people were not immediately told they were free. More than two years later, on June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that slavery had ended and that all enslaved people were free. That date, June 19th, became known as Juneteenth, combining the words June and 19th. For generations, Black communities