| Related sites for http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/JJ/lkj1.html |
| Tea,_Jean-Paul Pictures, links, information about the author, and philosophical musings. | | Treleaven,_Simon Includes favorite links and facts about the author, who lives in Cornwall, England. | | Privacy_South_Africa List of privacy violators in South Africa with links. Also FAQs on how to protect yourself. | | Verf_Photographs Portrait, still life and homoerotic photo galleries. | | Lake_Tahoe_Gay_Ski_Week Lake Tahoe annual gay ski and party event. Rates, reservations, and events. | | The_St__Petersburg_Paradox By Robert M. Martin, Dalhousie University. | | Bunkers_and_Dolan Research covers Virginia, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming. Compiled by Tami Dolan. | | Cory_Family_Society Dedicated to the research and publication of information about the name and its many variants, including ancestors and descendents. American based with English roots. Features family DNA Project. | | Angel_Connections_by_Lori Psychic, and angel readings for your personal life or business life. | | California_Psychics Offer in-depth psychic readings, free daily horoscopes and advice articles dealing with love, relationships, work and life. | | Women_Left_Behind_(Women_in_World_History_Curriculum) A look at the impact of the Crusades on women. | | União_do_Vegetal Personal account of a Unaio do Vegetal service from a book about spiritual uses of psychoactives by Nicholas Saunders | | Dictionary_of_Philosophy_of_Mind___Putnam,_Hilary Concise entry by Tadeusz Zawidzki. | | Keating,_Bernie Weblog, resume and humor. | | The_Ecole_Glossary__Isidore_of_Seville Short essay on his life and works, by Karen Rae Keck. | | Police_Training_Academy The Academy provides basic police training to qualified civilians & police recruits and in-service training to sworn police officers. | | Redbook__The_Best_Position_for_Making_Love Praise for the missionary position and its variations like the Coital Alignment Technique. | | Jewish_Encyclopedia__Simeon Overview of the second son of Jacob from the traditional Jewish perspective, including rabbinic commentary and apocrypha. | | If_the_CIA_Had_Butted_Out____ Suggesting that the world would be a safre, more stable place, had MI6 and CIA had not toppled Iran's democracy in 1953. (October 21, 2001) | | Harper_Family_Tree Ancestral heritage of Liz Ferguson including pedigree charts, ahnentafel report and guestbook. |
|
Handbook of Texas Online - JUNETEENTH
  
 
 Used Car Buying GuideListings, News, Tips,Insurance Information,Reviews and More
format this article to print
JUNETEENTH.
On June 19 ("Juneteenth"), 1865, Union general Gordon
Grangerqv read the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, thus belatedly
bringing about the freeing of 250,000 slaves in Texas. The tidings
of freedom reached slaves gradually as individual plantation owners
read the proclamation to their bondsmen over the months following
the end of the war. The news elicited an array of personal celebrations,
some of which have been described in The Slave Narratives of
Texas (1974). The first broader celebrations of Juneteenth
were used as political rallies and to teach freed African Americanqv about their voting rights. Within a short time, however, Juneteenth
was marked by festivities throughout the state, some of which
were organized by official Juneteenth committees.
The day has been celebrated through formal thanksgiving
ceremonies at which the hymn "Lift Every Voice" furnished
the opening. In addition, public entertainment, picnics, and family
reunions have often featured dramatic readings, pageants, parades,
barbecues, and ball games. Blues festivals have also shaped the
Juneteenth remembrance. In Limestone County, celebrants gather
for a three-day reunion organized by the Nineteenth of June Organization.
Some of the early emancipation festivities were relegated by city
authorities to a town's outskirts; in time, however, black groups
collected funds to purchase tracts of land for their celebrations,
including Juneteenth. A common name for these sites was Emancipation
Park. In Houston, for instance, a deed for a ten-acre site was
signed in 1872, and in Austin the Travis County Emancipation Celebration
Association acquired land for its Emancipation Park in the early
1900s; the Juneteenth event was later moved to Rosewood Park.
In Limestone County the Nineteenth of June Association acquired
thirty acres, which has since been reduced to twenty acres by
the rising of Lake Mexia.
Particular celebrations of Juneteenth have had unique
beginnings or aspects. In the state capital Juneteenth was first
celebrated in 1867 under the direction of the Freedmen's Bureauqv and became part of the calendar of public events by 1872. Juneteenth
in Limestone County has gathered "thousands" to be with
families and friends. At one time 30,000 blacks gathered at Booker
T. Washington Park, known more popularly as Comanche Crossing,
for the event. One of the most important parts of the Limestone
celebration is the recollection of family history, both under
slaveryqv and since. Another of the state's memorable celebrations of Juneteenth
occurred in Brenham, where large, racially mixed crowds witness
the annual promenade through town. In Beeville, black, white,
and brown residents have also joined together to commemorate the
day with barbecue, picnics, and other festivities.
Juneteenth declined in popularity in the early 1960s,
when the civil-rights movement,qv with its push for integration,
diminished interest in the event. In the 1970s African Americans'
renewed interest in celebrating their cultural heritage led to
the revitalization of the holiday throughout the state. At the
end of the decade Representative Al Edwards, a Democrat from Houston,
introduced a bill calling for Juneteenth to become a state holiday.
The legislature passed the act in 1979, and Governor William P.
Clements, Jr., signed it into law. The first state-sponsored Juneteenth
celebration took place in 1980.
Juneteenth has also had an impact outside the state.
Black Texans who moved to Louisiana and Oklahoma have taken the
celebration with them. In 1991 the Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian
Institution sponsored "Juneteenth '91, Freedom Revisited,"
featuring public speeches, African-American arts and crafts, and
other cultural programs. There, as in Texas, the state of its
origin, Juneteenth has provided the public the opportunity to
recall the milestone in human rights the day represents for African
Americans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Randolph B. Campbell, "The End
of Slavery in Texas: A Research Note," Southwestern Historical
Quarterly 88 (July 1984). Doris Hollis Pemberton, Juneteenth
at Comanche Crossing (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983). Vertical
Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
William H. Wiggins, Jr., O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation
Celebrations (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987).
David A. Williams, The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and
the Emancipation Proclamation, Texas Style (June 19, 1865)
(Austin: Williams Independent Research Enterprises, 1979).
Teresa Palomo Acosta
Support the Handbook of Texas by donating today!To join the TSHA, visit our membership information page.
top of page |
about |
search |
help |
home -
contribute -
bookstore -
teaching tools -
feedback -
credits -
multimedia -
news
how to cite this article |
report an error or correction |
suggest an article topic
Copyright © Texas State Historical AssociationTerms of Use |
|
