Photos: Gov. Hobbs & local leaders at Tucson’s Juneteenth Festival

For the first time in its history, a sitting Arizona governor attended the Tucson Juneteenth Festival, marking the end of slavery in the Southwest after the Civil War.

Gov. Katie Hobbs spoke at the 55th annual festival Saturday at Kino Sports Complex.

The federal holiday, which lands next Thursday, commemorates the June 19, 1865, arrival of Union troops in Galveston Bay, Texas, who announced to more than 250,000 enslaved people that they were finally free by executive order, nearly a year and a half after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued was President Abraham Lincoln.

Hobbs shared her condolences with the families affected by the deadly Minnesota attacks earlier in the day. Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot in their home; State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also targets of a shooting at their home but survived.

Hobbs spoke about the legacy of Juneteenth and the importance the holiday holds.

She was joined by local leaders, including Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Rex Scott, Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, County Attorney Laura Conover, Tucson Chief of Police Chad Kasmar, and NAACP Tucson Branch President Cheree Meeks.