June 19, 2021
Juneteenth and Texas History
By Ben Voth
General Granger's Orders Number 3 read at Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865:
The people 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 personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.
Granger's proclamation and argument were a two-year-delayed application of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Texas was one of the last vast locales to receive the word. This is why the news was viewed incredulously by black populations in Texas upon its hearing and why the date retains the important Afro-idealist sentiment of a "Texas independence day." Texas was not a longstanding U.S. state, and her founding was marred with compromises on the keeping of slavery despite Stephen F. Austin's acknowledgement that the practice was "evil."
The date became black Americans' enduring "Texas independence day." Black Americans often utilized parks and churches across Texas to commemorate this incredible news, and in 1980, Texas was understandably the first state to make it a government holiday. This is now mimicked by almost all U.S. states, and there is a growing sense of treating it as a national and even international holiday.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/juneteenth_and_texas_history.html
