Galveston, Texas – June 19,1865 – J
uneteenth At one time, if you were not from Texas or Louisiana, the mention of “Nineteenth of June” or “Juneteenth” would mean nothing to you. History reminds us that for the Negro in America, the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, did NOT mean freedom. Indeed, for Negroes in Texas, even Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation of Proclamation on January 1, 1863, did not signify freedom. For those of you who do not know the story: It was Monday afternoon, on the 19th day of June, 1865, on the Governor Stroud Plantation about 2 ½ miles south of the present day Booker T. Washington Park (Comanche Crossing), that Logan Stroud and wife, Mrs. Jane Stroud, arrived around 2:00 o’clock, from their plantation farther to the south, to bring and cause to be read the Emancipation Proclamation (General Orders #3), thereby freeing the enslaved Negros held in bondage in Limestone County, Texas. Two and one half years AFTER Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
