Nationally, Americans are celebrating Juneteenth for the fourth year in a row, but in Galveston, Texas, families have been celebrating the date for generations.
The date, which became a federal holiday in 2021, commemorates the official end of slavery in Galveston in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation ordered the release of black people still held by members of the Confederacy.
Members of Texas City’s black community say the holiday has always been recognized and celebrated by local blacks, in parks and backyards, where families and friends gathered to barbecue and tell stories.
Roy Collins, 67, of Galveston, said NPR who has “journalistic records of my great-grandfather – who at the time, in 1885, would have been 25 years old – and was assigned the role of reading the Emancipation Proclamation at that celebration.”
Members of the Galveston city government reveal new signage that will be installed on the highway entering the island to recognize its place as the birthplace of Juneteenth.
Emancipation Day celebration held on June 19, 1900 in Austin, Texas. Texas remained under Confederate rule even after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in 1863.
Each year, the city hosts a reading of General Order No. 3, which mandated the freeing of those still enslaved.
Usually, the reading is accompanied by a march that recreates some of the first celebrations of freedom. Gala events and dinners are also held in the city.
Juneteenth is also a holiday meant to support and honor Black businesses.
Candace Reese’s family history in Galveston dates back to a time when her ancestors were slaves on Michel Menard’s property: Menard founded Galveston.
She says, “Juneteenth is about the economic empowerment of those who are descendants of those who were enslaved because there is still a long way to go that each generation has to make up.”
Torin Collins told the outlet that she also celebrated the now-national holiday.
His family in Texas owns a former Confederate plantation. Every year, she said, his father hosts a giant Juneteenth celebration to gather and teach the community about his history.
“I was raised with an awareness of how important Juneteenth is and how much we need to remember history, and where we started, and that kind of dark chapter that everyone tries to sweep under the rug,” she said.
On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation came into forcedeclaring that all people in the United States would be free.
African Americans gathered in churches and private homes across the country waiting for the words of the law to finally spread across the country.
People gather to celebrate the unveiling of the mural as part of the Juneteenth Legacy Project commemorating the end of slavery in the United States on June 19 in Galveston, Texas.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops landed in Galveston Bay to deliver freedom to the 250,000 black Americans in Texas.
Group portrait of three young African Americans at the Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900.
Eight men in suits with ceremonial swords on their hips, June 19, 1900. These were the “officers of the day” at the Juneteenth Emancipation Day celebration, which is still recreated in some form in select parts of Texas .
The Juneteenth Historical Marker is unveiled following the dedication ceremony hosted by the Galveston Historical Foundation and the Texas Historical Commission on Juneteenth a decade ago.
At midnight, black soldiers marched onto plantations across the South with small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, spreading the news of freedom far and wide.
But the proclamation did not apply to everyone in the United States. It could not be implemented in areas still under Confederate control.
And so, in Texas, the westernmost tip of the Confederacy, slaves would remain slaves for two and a half more years.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, where they announced that more than a quarter of a million enslaved blacks in Texas were free by executive order.