LCDR Edward Lea USN, Camp 2 – Houston, TX

Juneteenth National Independence Day

Today, we celebrate Juneteenth, a celebration of the Emancipation Declaration that started in Galveston Texas, June 19th, 1865, the historic day slavery was abolished in Texas.

Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops under the command of General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as “Juneteenth,” by the newly freed people in Texas.

Today, several uniformed members of the Houston-based LCDR Edward Lea Camp 2 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will gather at historic Ashton Villa in Galveston and Brother Duncan will recreate the reading of the Proclamation.

Texas was the first state to recognize the date by enacted law, in 1980, and it became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021 when the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law.

Happy Juneteenth to One and All !!