Juneteenth is a national holiday to be observed Friday that commemorates June 19, 1865. That is the date when Union troops entered Galveston, Texas, and declared that all the slaves in that state were at last free. That date is often considered the final end of slavery in the United States, although it took a constitutional amendment ratified later that year to truly eliminate it.

Clearly, Black Americans have the most emotional connection to Juneteenth, but people of every race are invited to join in celebrating a day which helped to create a modern United States– a nation in which no one thinks twice about things like having two Black justices on the Supreme Court or a Black man running for his party’s presidential nomination.

Juneteenth can be considered our country’s second Independence Day. It follows up on the patriotic and revolutionary promise of July 4, 1776, that all are created equal and are endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Commemorating Juneteenth is a way of recognizing that we are all humans worthy of respect and dignity.

“Juneteenth means emancipation, freedom, and unity,” Fort Dodge resident Murphy Washington once told The Messenger. “For us to truly have the voice to be unified and talk about things that bring us together is what Juneteenth is for me.”

We believe he summed it up very eloquently.

While Juneteenth is just one day, we think the values of freedom and unity it emphasizes should always prevail not only for local residents, but for all Americans.

We encourage everyone to take a minute on Friday to reflect on the importance of Juneteenth for all.