Juneteenth is just under a week away, but in many places around Fairfax County, the celebrations will start this weekend.
Officially known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, it is observed annually on June 19, the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to liberate some 250,000 enslaved people who had not been freed despite President Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.