Juneteenth

Stephenson, Mrs. Charles (Grace Murray). 1900. Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900, Photo from University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.

This isn’t a story about my ancestors, but it is one worth telling. Growing up in Texas, I was certainly aware of Juneteenth [1], which has only been a national holiday since 2021 but has been a Texas state holiday since 1980. To me, as a young person, the holiday wasn’t much different from Memorial Day or Independence Day, one of those summer holidays marked by parades and cook-outs and sometimes fireworks.

The reality of Juneteenth, of course, is that it marks the freeing of some 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. In theory, they had been free since the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, but Texas enslavers weren’t willing to give up their claims that enslaved people were their property without some external pressure (Campbell 1984). That pressure came on June 19, 1865, more than two years later and after the official end of the Civil War, when General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3—or at least that’s how I always heard the story.

Major General Gordon Granger. June 19, 1865. General Order #3. Headquarters, District of Texas, Galveston, TX. Photo from the National Archives.

As the Rev. Addae Ama Kraba pointed out in a recent sermon, from the perspective of the many enslaved people in Texas, the news and, more importantly, the enforcement of their freedom were actually brought by Black soldiers carrying guns and wearing the blue uniforms of the United States Army (Kraba 2024). At least some of these soldiers arrived in Texas before General Granger. Beginning on June 5,1865, regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), all part of the XXV U.S. Army Corps, sailed from Virginia to various places along the Texas Gulf Coast. Four of these regiments—from Illinois, Indiana, and New York—landed in Galveston the day before General Grainger arrived (Juneteenth Legacy Project 2021).

The XXV Corps was created in December 1864, out of the 31 USCT regiments that were part of the Army of the James, which constituted the bulk of the Union Army’s troops along the Atlantic coast. Although led by white officers, as were all USCT units, this corps has the distinction of being the first (and only) U.S. Army corps composed solely of Black enlisted men. The various divisions of the XXV Corps saw considerable combat during early months of 1865, including participating in campaigns against Wilmington, NC, and Petersburg and Appomattox, VA (Dobak 2011).

Bell & Hall, Photographers. Unidentified Soldier of XXV Corps in Uniform. Photo from the Library of Congress.

In May 1865, the XXV Corps as sent to Texas as the principal occupying force, tasked with freeing enslaved people, enforcing order, and re-establishing the federal government but also with providing security against a possible invasion from Mexico.[2] After landing along the Gulf Coast, the XXV Corps ventured inland, occupying forts that had gone unused since war was declared in 1861. These soldiers remained in Texas for as much as two years, with various regiments mustered out between January 1866 and July 1867 (Dobak 2011). While they were not in Texas indefinitely, their presence had a major impact on the formerly enslaved people to whom they brought liberation.

Celebrations of Juneteenth in Texas began soon after the Civil War.[3] In 1867, a Juneteenth celebration was held in Austin by the Freedman’s Bureau. Similar celebrations sprang up across the state, and in a number of cities, Black residents purchased land to create parks where the date could be commemorated. In Houston, for instance, the 10-acre Emancipation Park, which became a city park in 1918 and still exists today, was established in 1872. Juneteenth remained an important day for Black Texans throughout the 20th century and was spread beyond the state by Texans who moved to other parts of the country. After Juneteenth became a Texas state holiday in 1980, the date also gained more national recognition, including a 1991 event in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Anacostia Museum (Acosta 2024).

The movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday rose to prominence in 2016 when Opal Lee, age 89, activist and retired schoolteacher, set out to walk from Ft. Worth to Washington, DC, to raise awareness of the need for a holiday that recognizes the importance of emancipation and the experiences of enslaved Black Americans. Her work, and that of others, took on new weight after the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent protests, and Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021 ((Acosta 2024). Recent efforts to commemorate the holiday have also shone a light on the role of the XXV Army Corps in the events of June 1865, including the dedication of a new mural in Galveston in 2021. When Juneteenth comes around again next year, I know that I will think, not only of the enslaved people freed by the end of the Civil War, but also of the Black Union troops who played an enormous role in making that freedom possible.

Absolute Equality. Old Galveston Square Building, Galveston, TX. Photo by Juneteenth Legacy Project.

[1] Of course, Texas also celebrates Confederate Heroes’ Day on January 19, a date which means that the holiday sometimes occurs on Martin Luther King Day.

[2] The U.S government, which recognized Benito Juárez as the rightful president of Mexico. was concerned that the French-backed emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I, would lend military aid to Confederate leaders who fled to Mexico at the end of the Civil War (Harmon 1937).

[3] Juneteenth is not the only celebration related to the liberation of enslaved Black Americans. Emancipation Day is celebrated in various states and on various dates, based on the state’s history.  Washington, DC, for example, commemorates April 16, 1862, as the day President Lincoln freed enslaved people in the city.

Works Cited

Acosta, Teresa Palomo. 2024. “Juneteenth.” Handbook of Texas. Austin: Texas State Historical Association.

Campbell, Randolph B. 1984. “The End of Slavery in Texas: A Research Note.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 88(1): 71-80.

Dobak, William A. 2011. Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army.

Harmon, George D. 1937. “Confederate Migration to Mexico.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 17(4): 458-87.

Juneteenth Legacy Project. 2021.

Kraba, Addae Ama. June 16, 2024. “The Quest for Freedom.” Sermon delivered at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin.