June 01, 2025
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Kane Clerk’s office to close on Juneteenth recognition

National holiday celebrates end of slavery in U.S.

By Brenda Schory
Cristian Rodriguez of South Elgin waves a Juneteenth flag during the Juneteenth celebration on Saturday June 15, 2024, held at Emily G. Johns School in Plano.

Cristian Rodriguez of South Elgin waves a Juneteenth flag during the Juneteenth celebration last year in Plano. The Kane County Clerk's Office will close on Thursday, June 19 this year in recognition of the holiday, (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

The Kane County Clerk’s Offices will be closed at the Geneva and Aurora locations on Thursday, June 19, 2025, for the Juneteenth Independence Day Holiday, officials announced in a news release.

Juneteenth celebrates when Union Army General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, bringing news to over 250,000 enslaved people that they were emancipated, according to the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

Granger read aloud General Order No. 3:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.”

Congress passed the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865, which officially abolished slavery in every state, not just those in the Confederacy that were involved in open rebellion, according to the website, capitolhistory.org.

On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, recognizing the day as a federal holiday.

The clerk’s business hours will resume on Friday, June 20, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. at both locations.

Updated information is available online at www.kanecountyclerk.org.

Kane County