UNDERSTANDING HISTORY
WHAT IS JUNETEENTH?
Juneteenth is a celebration in honor of the day the last slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, June 19, 1865. June 19th has since become a resounding celebration throughout the south, and all over America, in the African American Community. The Juneteenth celebrations happen in unison across the nation. Celebrations are taking place in Galveston, Texas; Bogalusa, Louisiana; Oakland, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas; and Lorain, Ohio, with the original birthplace being Galveston, Texas. Today Juneteenth is a celebration of African-American freedom and culture.
A more detailed history of Juneteenth follows...
Galveston Texas was a pirate port until 1821. By the end of the Civil War, in April 1865, it had boomed into the largest city in Texas. As the population of the interior of the United States began to explode, traders came to Galveston from every comer of the world and got rich dealing in slaves, cotton, immigrants, and various other forms of commerce.
There were around 200,000 slaves in Texas when the Civil war started, concentrated in the plantations along the coastal plain. Many thousands came through Galveston, sold at auction on the city's streets. After a fierce land and sea battle, Galveston was occupied by Union forces near the end of the Civil War. Texans were among the last in-the country to be affected by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. In the confusion and turmoil, of the war drawing to a close, the people of Texas did not immediately learn of Robert E. Lee's April 1865 surrender to Grant in Virginia. Texans fought on through May, until they finally learned that the war had truly ended.
Major General Gordon Granger of the Union army landed at the port of Galveston with 1,800 soldiers to take command of the Military District of Texas. His first action after landing, on June 19, 1865, was to go from his headquarters in the Osterman Building at the comer of Strand and 22nd, down to the street and read General Order #3 to the people of Galveston: "The people of Texas are informed ... all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves..."
Those words caused tremendous changes in the state. At the end of the war a third of Texans were slaves, a large majority in some areas. As the stunning news from Galveston reached them, on June 19th, Juneteenth becarne the symbol of their freedom. There was no doubt the day would be a holiday for the freed slaves in 1866. The tradition remained strong well into the 20th century, honored like the Fourth of July President Obama with prayer services, inspirational speeches, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, stories from former slaves, picnics, games, rodeos and dances.
In many parts of Texas, African Americans purchased land for "emancipation grounds," public places where they could hold their Juneteenth gatherings. Some remain, such as Houston's Emancipation Park, purchased in 1872; what is now Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia; and Emancipation Park in Austin. Over the years, celebration of June 19th as a day of freedom traveled with African-American Texans to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and eventually to Alabama, Florida, and California.
During World War II observance of the holiday declined, revived in the early 1950's, but declined again in the turbulence of the late '50's and the 1960's. In the 1970's, Juneteenth revived yet again. In Houston, the annual Juneteenth Blues Festival began in 1976. The Texas legislature declared June I 9th "Emancipation Day in Texas," a legal state holiday effective January 1, 1980.
Today, the celebration of Juneteenth continues across the nation with parades, family gatherings, picnics and music.