City offices and facilities will be closed to the public on Friday, June 19 to observe Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. This designation comes from an executive order signed by Mayor Jim Kenney.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to ensure that enslaved people were freed. The troops arrived two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln.

Learn more about Juneteenth in Philadelphia, and be sure to join us tomorrow for some special events commemorating this important moment in American history!