To understand Juneteenth and its significance to Texas, you must first understand that the Lone Star State has deeply rooted traditions that extend through cultures and multi-generations.
Stephen F. Austin went to Mexico saying that without the negro Texas colonies would fail,” said Frank Jackson, Prairie View A&M Director of Community Affairs.
“The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January 1, 1863, but we didn’t get the word here in Texas until June 19, 1865, when then Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Gaveston and read orders that all previously enslaved people in Texas were free,” said Jackson.
“The day slaves got the word that emancipation was coming to Texas, that was a huge movement because it was then that slaves realized they could compete against their owner,” said Jackson.
In 1980, the late State Representative Al Edwards helped push legislation through the house declaring Juneteenth a holiday in Texas.
