“The day that federal troops rode into Galveston with orders to release those kept as slaves has been celebrated, in Texas and beyond, for 127 years, as Emancipation Day, as Jubilation Day, as Juneteenth.”
Originally published July 14, 1992
Ellison's near fanatical commitment to sound novelistic form and structure has loads to do with why 'Juneteenth' wasn't published while he was alive.
Originally published July 6, 1999