It's a Juneteenth Day

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.

- Reverend Dr. Rocky Brown, 3rd

Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation — which had become official on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865 and the arrival of General Granger's regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Later attempts to explain this two-and-a-half-year delay in receiving this important news have yielded several versions handed down. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the announcement of freedom. Another is that the enslavers deliberately withheld the information to maintain the labor force on the plantations. He had the federal troops wait for the enslavers to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which or neither of these versions could be true. Indeed, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question for whatever reason; conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

General Order Number 3

One of General Granger's first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3, which began most significantly with:

“The people of Texas are informed that by a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and enslaved people, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”