Have you met the grandmother of Juneteenth? Opal Lee’s mission turned a movement into a national holiday—how will you honor her legacy this June 19?
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June 17, 2025
Discover the meaning and legacy of Juneteenth with educator insights, historical context, and free teaching resources. Learn how Opal Lee helped make it a national holiday and explore lessons on emancipation, civil rights, and Black history for your classroom.
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"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation."—Coretta Scott King
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what Juneteenth—the annual recognition of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War—was until I started working for the AFT on the Share My Lesson website. I have no memory of learning about Juneteenth in high school—despite an entire unit on the Civil War. In the last several years, I've been proactive in learning more about it, to the point that I feel comfortable talking about it here and now.
For historical context, as the U.S. approached its third year of a bloody war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. The proclamation stated "that all persons held as slaves" within the states part of the rebellion "are, and henceforward shall be free." The Civil War then became about preserving the Union and freeing people who were enslaved in the South. The Civil War concluded in April 1865, but news of the Emancipation Proclamation was slow to travel. It took more than two years to reach Galveston, Texas, when Gen. Gordon Granger finally arrived on horseback on June 19, 1865, and issued the call with "General Order No. 3" saying "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
Sort of. Slavery was not actually abolished when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. It “applied only to enslaved people in states that were in rebellion in 1863, namely South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on Dec. 6, 1865, made slavery illegal. Learn more about the slow ratification process by some states in this Equal Justice Initiative article.
Juneteenth, a blending of the words “June” and “nineteenth,” also known as Freedom Day and Emancipation Day, has become a recognized time of reflection and celebration among many Black families and their communities, with special significance for those who trace ancestry back to not only the Civil War but also to the 1600s, the earliest days of slavery in what later became the United States. Fast forward to 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday. Now, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., honor the day in some way. In June 2021, Juneteenth became the 11th federal holiday officially recognized.
Share My Lesson has a curated collection of resources to teach about Juneteenth—but for a starter set of lessons to use with students and build their knowledge of Juneteenth and related historical events, from Frederick Douglass to Opal Lee, begin here:
In this video conversation with three experts—author-poet Carole Boston Weatherford and two educators—Lee & Low explores the importance of this holiday and how and why it's celebrated across the country, as well as relevant books, teaching strategies and more.
This lesson plan is designed to engage elementary school students and to help them understand the meaning and importance of the Emancipation Proclamation. It also touches on the influence of abolitionists, as well as the Battle of Antietam, influencing Lincoln’s wartime strategy. You can find the counterpart lesson for high school here.
Watch history teacher Sari Beth Rosenberg as she discusses the inspiring journey of Opal Lee, the "grandmother of Juneteenth." This lesson plan and video explore Lee's relentless efforts to make Juneteenth a national holiday and her significant impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
In this lesson, students learn about Reconstruction and the challenges that African Americans faced when trying to embrace their full humanity and rights as citizens in the years immediately following the Civil War by exploring constitutional amendments and primary sources.
This lesson is part of Facing History’s work on the Reconstruction era. You can engage students in a discussion about the meaning of freedom and how freed people sought to define freedom after Emancipation.
In the 1850s, abolition was not a widely embraced movement in the US. In this argument, Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. This lesson includes five activities.
Why has Juneteenth been overlooked? In this persuasive piece, Thomas writes, “This country has served a narrative that has finally met a reckoning we can’t ignore: Juneteenth has never been explicitly taught in American history.”
High on the Hog tells the sweeping history of African American food—first as a book and later in a highly acclaimed four-part series on Netflix. You’ll relish your next meal even more after you learn about the dynamic Black influence on American cuisine.
Here are two additional curated collections that you may find of interest this summer. The first is in recognition of June being Black Music Appreciation month. And August is the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, so you should explore our Civil Rights Movement lesson plans as well.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared that June would be Black Music Month. A month set aside to recognize the incredible influence that Black music has had on the U.S. and the world. Use this curated collection of free preK-12 lesson plans, activities and resources to teach the history of Black music.
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