GALVESTON, Texas – Friday will be the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. Two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all people from slavery, the news finally reached Texas. Juneteenth commemorates the significant day.
All around Galveston you can find historical markers that detail that important date in history.
“It brings discussion to something that has been discussed as a regional event or something for Texas but now this is having national significance relayed into a bigger understanding of emancipation and freedom,’ said Dwayne Jones with the Galveston Historical Society.
Jones said that historians know of three significant locations where the proclamation was read by Union General Gordon Granger.
Here are the following locations:
- The Osterman Building on the Strand. The building was headquarters for Union officers after the Civil War.
- Historians said that Granger also made another announcement at the Courthouse and at Reedy Chapel.
- While not officially documented, Jones said that there has been discussion by historians that Granger made another announcement on the balcony of Ashton Villa on Broadway.