There are many theories as to why the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t enforced in Texas.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. It went into effect on January 1, 1863. However, slaves were not set free in the Confederacy until the Union army was able to come in and take over. On June 18, 1865, the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas. The next day, June 19th, General Gordon Granger announced that the slaves in Texas were free by order of the president of the United States. This event marked the point when enslaved people were officially set free, and Juneteenth was decided to be the day to celebrate such event.

News traveled slowly back in those days—it took Confederate soldiers in western Texas more than two months to hear that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. Still, some have struggled to explain the 30-month gap between Lincoln’s proclamation and the enslaved people’s freedom, leading to speculation that some Texans suppressed the announcement. Other theories include that the original messenger was murdered to prevent the information from being relayed or that the federal government purposely delayed the announcement to Texas to get one more cotton harvest out of the enslaved workers. But the real reason is probably that Lincoln's proclamation simply wasn't enforceable in the rebel states before the end of the Civil War.