Letter to the Editor

On June 19, 1865, a significant event unfolded in Galveston, Texas, as Union troops arrived there and found properties where people were still being held in slavery after the close of the Civil War. Major-General Gordon Granger, a US war hero, arrived in the city of 5,000, once the largest in Texas, with his army and publicly announced that the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, had ended slavery in all of the Confederate states, including Texas, a western frontier state.

Granger called for an immediate end to the practice of slavery and for all former enslaved Africans–men, women and children—still held in captivity as slaves, were now free. He and his army’s job was to vigorously enforce the Proclamation.

In addition, Granger also issued his own General Order Number 3. This military directive stated the following:

The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with 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 slaves, and the connection therefore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

Together, these two pronouncements had an immediate and serious impact on the 183,000 black lives that lived in the state of Texas at the time. And to celebrate and commemorate Juneteenth seemed like an answer to the prayers of a people wearied by 246 years of slavery (from 1619 to 1865) in this country.

In celebration of this grand event, African-Americans each year in Texas have rung the liberty bells, flaunted the red, white and blue flags of the US, shouted the Jubilee, watched African-American soldiers drill, sang Christian songs of hope and inspiration, and have heard patriotic speeches from leaders at sites all over the state.

Freedom had come and African- Americans were united by their common sufferings as a people who were delivered from the bondage of slavery.

The Juneteenth Celebration is also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or African-American Independence Day, born on June 19, 1865, and observed annually. The word “Juneteenth” references the date of the holiday by combining the two words “June” and “nineteenth.” The official name of this federal holiday is “Juneteenth Independence Day.” It is now recognized and generally accepted as a US federal holiday commemorating the day when slavery finally ended in the United States of America.

Sy Oliver