By John L. Horton
One hundred and fifty-five years after slaves were declared free, I can imagine the joy and jubilation in Galveston, Texas, when the proclamation was read.
On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger recited the order that included these words: ”This involves an absolute equality of personal and property rights between masters and slaves.”
It’s the oldest celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States, marking the day that Union soldiers delivered the news to slaves in Texas that they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect.
At the time of the 1863 proclamation, Texas was not under the control of the Union army, and slave masters conspired to prevent slaves from finding out that they were free.
Notwithstanding our uniqueness in American history, it is now time for us to transform ourselves from the weak and pitiful into the strong and powerful.
