SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield will mark the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, Juneteenth, by displaying a rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. The copy of the proclamation signed by Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward will be displayed between June 15 and July 6. Juneteenth is on June 19. On that day in 1865, two years after Lincoln signed the proclamation, enslaved Blacks in Galveston, Texas, were freed with the arrival of federal troops. Lawmakers in Illinois and elsewhere have in recent months voted to make Juneteenth a state holiday.
