William Floyd schools will not be in session on Thursday, June 19, to observe Juneteenth.
Juneteenth marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865. This date is significant as it came nearly two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all enslaved people free starting January 1, 1863. On June 19, Major General Gordon Granger and Union Army troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the proclamation and liberate the last enslaved Black Americans. Juneteenth was recognized as an official New York State holiday in October 2020 and became a federal holiday in June 2021.