The people (of Texas) are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free’ — General Gordon Granger, The Galveston Daily News (June 21, 1865)

The Echoes of a Proclamation: Commemorating June 19, 1865

By Eli Kirshner, Historian

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom and liberation. It commemorates June 19th, 1865—a day when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to declare that the state’s 250,000 enslaved African Americans were free.1 It came two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, which declared freedom for enslaved people in the states that seceded from the Union – such as Texas.2 However, it only went into effect when the Union military occupied each state.

Six months after Union Troops entered Galveston, the Emancipation Proclamation was finally codified into the U.S. Constitution as the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially ended enslavement.

A group photograph of thirty-one people at a Juneteenth Celebration in Emancipation Park in Houston's Fourth Ward. Reverend Jack Yates is pictured on the left and Sallie Yates is pictured in the center toward the front in a black outfit, 1880

A group photograph of thirty-one people at a Juneteenth Celebration in Emancipation Park in Houston’s Fourth Ward. Reverend Jack Yates is pictured on the left and Sallie Yates is pictured in the center toward the front in a black outfit, 1880

The First—June 19, 1865

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and delivered the news of freedom through General Order No. 3, announcing that:

“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 slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”3

It came as welcome news to the last state to come under of the Union’s military occupation. Many of the Union soldiers who entered Galveston were Black men who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T). They were roughly 200,000 Black soldiers in the Union Army by the end of the Civil War – many of whom had known personally the brutality and horrors of enslavement.

Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900, Texas. The Portal to Texas History Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900, Texas. The Portal to Texas History Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

People with roots in Galveston – and Texas, more broadly – can trace the moment their ancestors became free back to General Order No. 3.4 Juneteenth, in the late 1800s, was a very local Emancipation Day, celebrating familial connection, reunification, community, and, most of all, freedom from bondage.

As African Americans migrated north and west, the celebration of June 19th as Emancipation Day spread to neighboring towns and states.5 As a way of commemorating the date, Freedpeople purchased “emancipation grounds,” such as Emancipation Park in Houston in 1872, to gather and celebrate.6 After decades of local celebrations, Juneteenth became a recognized state holiday in Texas in 1980.7

“Help Me Find My People”

Juneteenth, in its earliest celebrations, marks a moment of familial reunion. The first Juneteenth offered formerly enslaved people in Texas the opportunity to look for family members whom they had been separated from during enslavement. For generations, without remorse or consideration for kinship ties, enslavers bought and sold enslaved people, pulling families apart, with almost no way to reunite.

In the months leading up to the end of the Civil War and in the first years of Reconstruction (1865-1877), former Union officers staffed what became the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau). Along with facilitating labor contracts between freedpeople and former enslavers, adjudicating disputes, solemnizing marriages, and providing rations.  Among many other duties, Freedmen’s Bureau field agents received requests for transportation to search for loved ones.8

Hitting the Researcher’s Brick Wall

Despite the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau, religious aid societies, and other organizations to support family reunification after enslavement, formerly enslaved people faced seemingly insurmountable odds to locate and reconnect with kinfolk. In the 1860s to the 1930s, formerly enslaved people searching for kin faced challenges trying to locate family members, from securing transportation, to traveling long distances and between states, to gathering the funds. Nevertheless, they persisted. This search for one’s “people” included freedom seekers who emancipated themselves in the years prior to the end of slavery.

New York, New York County, Roll 981 Book 1, Page 159a,6th Election District, 8th Ward, Image 31/38 Manhattan, New York City, New York County, New York, USA July 16, 1870

New York, New York County, Roll 981 Book 1, Page 159a, 6th Election District, 8th Ward, Image 31/38 Manhattan, New York City, New York County, New York, USA, July 16, 1870

Dr. Heather Andrea Williams, historian and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, captures these experiences in the book Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery. She described how formerly enslaved African Americans attempted to reunify in the years following enslavement through various resources, such as newspapers. Dr. Williams explains how many people put out “information wanted” advertisements searching for kin in local newspapers, in the years, and even decades following emancipation. Some advertisements appear as late as the 1930s.9

For modern day genealogists and family historians, it’s a challenge to reunify with one’s own enslaved ancestors. It’s due to the limited written record, and some records are more comprehensive than others. The 1870 U.S. Census is a critical one—it was the first census to document formerly enslaved African Americans by first and last name. To genealogy researchers, the momentous census is known as a “brick wall.” Before 1865, enslaved African Americans were considered chattel property and not recorded in their full humanity in census records. For example, the 1850 and 1860 U.S. censuses included what was known as a Slave Schedule, which included enslavers by name and listed enslaved people only by age, sex, and color.

The 1870 U.S. Census can be a “brick wall,” but not always. While the census did not list family relationships until 1880, carefully studying the 1870 U.S. Census can be a way to reconstruct what a community may have looked like before the end of the Civil War and in the post-war period. To connect the research threads from leads in the pivotal census, researchers can also review local probate and estate records, which may list enslaved people by name and able to trace back farther back, and before the Civil War.

The Freedmen’s Bureau Records – Record Group 105 at the National Archives – can be a valuable resource for genealogists and those tracing their family history back into the period of Reconstruction and during enslavement. It has firsthand accounts; letters; financial statements; employment contracts; registers of people in hospitals; people looking for employment; those on payrolls; marriage certificates; and general testimonies of freedmen. It’s a treasure trove of information for genealogists and researchers concerning those freed in the early years of Reconstruction. Most of these documents are located at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

The Making of a National Holiday

Even though Juneteenth is the celebration of freedom from bondage, granting civil and equal rights did not happen overnight. The recognition of the holiday didn’t happen overnight either. One of its early advocates was Opal Lee. Lee, who is known today as “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” celebrated the holiday with her family in Texas as child. However, on June 19, 1939, after a white supremacist mob destroyed her family’s home, she realized it needed to be more than just a local gathering.10

Opal Lee is recognized as President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, delivers remarks at the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill Signing on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West) 17 June 2021

Opal Lee is recognized as President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, delivers remarks at the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill Signing on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West) 17 June 2021

Along with her dedicated career as a teacher and counselor, Lee has been an activist for over 40 years lobbying for  Juneteenth to be recognized nationally and become a federal holiday. She gathered signatures for petitions, lobbied, and even walked from her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D.C. in 2016—over 1,400 miles at a pace of 2.5 miles a day.11 Lee’s efforts paved the way for President Biden to sign legislation in 2021 to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Today’s Celebrations

Given its beginning in Galveston, Texas, Black Texans in particular have been gathering each Juneteenth to celebrate with family reunions, picnics, parades, barbeques.12 These celebrations spread to other Black communities across the United States, and Juneteenth has also served as an opportunity to organize for political and social causes.

Contemporary celebrations of Juneteenth bring together family, tradition, and food. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), many Juneteenth culinary dishes incorporate the color red, such as red beans and rice, barbeque, and even red velvet cake.13 Scholars indicate that this could be a symbol of resistance, resilience, the blood of the ancestors, or even a tie back to West and West-Central African cultures where red represents power.14

Celebrating Juneteenth today part of the broader Black freedom struggle for civil and human rights, and we honor this federal holiday as a day of sharing and learning about history.

References:

  1. “The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth,” National Museum of African American History and Culture (https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth: accessed 12 June 2025).
  2. “Emancipation Proclamation (1863),” National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/emancipation-proclamation: accessed 12 June 2025).
  3. “Today in History – June 19: Juneteenth,” Library of Congress Digital Collections (https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-19/: accessed 12 June 2025); also see, “Juneteenth: Sun, Sounds, and the Spirit of Freedom,” National Museum of African American History and Culture (https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/moments/juneteenth#First: accessed 12 June 2025).
  4. “The new Juneteenth federal holiday traces its roots to Galveston, Texas,” NPR, (https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1105911785/the-new-juneteenth-federal-holiday-traces-its-roots-to-galveston-texas: accessed 13 June 2025); “Juneteenth and General Orders, No. 3,” Galveston History, (https://www.galvestonhistory.org/news/juneteenth-and-general-order-no-3: accessed 12 June 2025)
  5. “Texas Observes Juneteenth,” Texas State Library and Archives Commission, (https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth: accessed 13 June 2025).
  6. Ibid.
  7. “Texas Observes Juneteenth,” Texas State Library and Archives Commission, (https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth: accessed 13 June 2025).
  8. “Freedmen’s Bureau Field Offices,” Mapping the Freedmen’s Bureau (https://mappingthefreedmensbureau.com/maps/: accessed 12 June 2025).
  9. Heather Andrea Williams, Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery, (University of North Carolina Press: 2012).
  10. “Our America: Meet Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth” ABC News 7 (Los Angeles) (https://abc7.com/opal-lee-juneteenth-2021-who-is-our-america-black-freedom/10761761/: accessed 13 June 2025)
  11. “The Grandmother of Juneteenth,” National Juneteenth Museum, (https://nationaljuneteenthmuseum.org/ms-opal-lee: accessed 12 June 2025).
  12. “The History and Significance of Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom,” Texas State Historical Association (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/juneteenth: accessed 12 June 2025).
  13. “Tastes of Resilience,” National Museum of African American History and Culture (https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/moments/juneteenth#Tastes: accessed 12 June 2025).
  14. Ibid.

Cover Image: “The people (of Texas) are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free” — General Gordon Granger, The Galveston Daily News (June 21, 1865)

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