CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH
Dear Editor: Juneteenth is a national holiday in observance of the emancipation (freeing) of slaves in the U.S. This holiday started right here in Texas, where slaves were freed June 19, 1865, nearly three years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Taylor, Texas Juneteenth Committee will celebrate Juneteenth with a festival Saturday, June 21, 5–10 p.m. in Fannie Robinson Park. The Emancipation Proclamation became official on Jan. 1, 1863, but not in Texas. It took 2 ½ years before the enslaved heard General Order No. 3 from the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa on June 19, 1865, announcing slavery had been formally abolished and that the enslavedwerefree. Let me quote one sentence from General Order No. 3: “This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”
