BFSA Juneteenth Celebration 2022 "Rebuilding Our Community"

HONORING OUR ANCESTORS

Each year the formerly enslaved people celebrated the end of slavery. June 19, 2019, marked the 154th anniversary of Juneteenth and the official end of slavery in the United States. Our ancestors gave us a gift to be shared with each generation. They impressed upon us that we each were someone special. They showed us that all things are possible if we have faith, and patience, continue to work hard, survive the rough times, benefit from others' wisdom, and maintain a passion for knowledge. Our gift to them is the assurance that we give our children the same sense of destiny they have provided and nurtured in each of us. We are the proof of the enormous strength of our ancestors. Even in their time of greatest need, they still thought of us and persevered through a lifetime of bitter slavery so that their descendants might one day enjoy the sweet taste of freedom. We honor our many Ancestors who paved the way for us with blood, sweat, and for so many with, their lives. We are forever grateful!

WHAT IS JUNETEENTH?

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. It declared all enslaved people were to be freed in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands. This excluded the five states known later as border states, which were the four slave states that were not in rebellion—Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri—and those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia, and also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana and Southeast Virginia.

More isolated geographically, Texas was not a battleground, and thus the Emancipation Proclamation did not affect its slaves unless they escaped. Planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting. Many brought their slaves with them, increasing by the thousands the number of enslaved people in the state at the end of the Civil War.

Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1000 resided in Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns. By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. As news of the end of the war moved slowly, it did not reach Texas until May 1865, and the Army of Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2. On June 18, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. On June 19, standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of "General Order No. 3", announcing the total emancipation of enslaved people:

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 personal rights and rights of property between former masters and enslaved people, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Formerly enslaved people in Galveston rejoiced in the streets after the announcement, although in the years afterward, many struggled to work through the changes against the resistance of whites. However, the following year, freedmen organized the first of what became annual celebrations of Juneteenth in Texas. Barred in some cities from using public parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations.

In 1980, Texas was the first state to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday under the legislation. Juneteenth is a "skeleton crew" day in the state; government offices do not close, but agencies may operate with reduced staff.

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