Robert Reid holds a flag during a Juneteenth celebration at the African Burying Ground Memorial Park Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Portsmouth, N.H.
Michael Dwyer/AP
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Michael Dwyer/AP
Juneteenth: How news of the Emancipation Proclamation spread through the South
While some enslaved people did not know about Lincoln's order, many learned of it while the fighting was still ongoing through informal networks, rumors and sometimes from slaveholders themselves.
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