Juneteenth for Everyone

Celebrating Freedom in Texas

It started in Galveston, on June 19, 1865 - or should I say that it ended in Galveston on that day? The institution of slavery ended (at least in America). The celebration of the liberation of all Americans began.

You probably know the story: when President Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, it didn't make much difference to the slaves living in states controlled by the Confederacy. Union troops hadn't made it to Texas, and many slaveowners further East sold or moved their slaves to Texas rather than give them up for nothing. Neither the news nor the fact of emancipation came to Texas for two and a half years.