With flags, ceremonies, parades and pomp, celebrations across the United States marked the day the promise of freedom finally rang true for more Americans.

The holiday to mark the end of slavery in the U.S. goes back to an order issued on June 19, 1865 as Union troops arrived in Galveston at the end of the Civil War. General Order No. 3 declared that all enslaved people in the state were free and had “absolute equality.”

Syracuse's own Juneteenth celebrations date back decades, with local Black communities calling it "our Fourth of July."