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7 <br /> 1 bondage, who should have been freed in 1863, did not hear of the freedom granted by the <br /> 2 Emancipation Proclamation; and <br /> 3 <br /> 4 WHEREAS, although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, there <br /> 5 were still a total of 250,000 people held as human chattel in Texas when U.S. Army General <br /> 6 Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and on June 19, 1865 —Juneteenth — proclaimed <br /> 7 the war had ended and so had the captivity of people who had been enslaved; and <br /> 8 <br /> 9 WHEREAS, the following is the text of the official recorded version of the order: <br /> 10 "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive <br /> 11 of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights <br /> 12 and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore <br /> 13 existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are <br /> 14 advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that <br /> 15 they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness <br /> 16 either there or elsewhere."; and <br /> 17 <br /> 18 WHEREAS, although news of emancipation came at different times during that Texas summer <br /> 19 and autumn 1865, African Americans in Texas started to celebrate the freedom of enslaved <br /> 20 persons on June 19 (Juneteenth) as their day of celebration; and <br /> 21 <br /> 22 WHEREAS, beginning in 1866, they held parades, barbecues, and gave speeches in <br /> 23 remembrance of their liberation. The oldest of the surviving formerly enslaved people were often <br /> 24 given a place of honor and Black Texans initially used these gatherings to attempt to locate <br /> 25 family members from whom they had been separated and soon these events became staging <br /> 26 areas for family reunions and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved through hostile <br /> 27 environments; and <br /> 28 <br /> 29 WHEREAS, by 1900, Juneteenth had unofficially become Texas Emancipation Day and was <br /> 30 sponsored by black churches and civic organizations; and <br /> 31 <br /> 32 WHEREAS, with the migration of African Americans from Texas to the West Coast, especially <br /> 33 during World War ll, Juneteenth grew in the emerging black communities of Los Angeles, San <br /> 34 Diego, and Oakland in California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington; and <br /> 35 <br /> 36 WHEREAS, activists in the 1980s began to advocate for wider recognition of the Juneteenth <br /> 37 Holiday; and <br /> 38 <br /> 39 WHEREAS, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday; and <br /> 40 <br /> 41 WHEREAS, by June 2020, 47 states and the District of Columbia had established either full or <br /> 42 partial recognition of the holiday— only Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota have not; and <br /> 43 <br /> 44 WHEREAS, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of <br /> 45 slavery in the United States; and <br /> 46 <br /> 47 WHEREAS, Juneteenth has been declared a paid holiday by the governing bodies of Orange <br /> 48 County, Town of Chapel Hill, the Town of Carrboro, the Town of Hillsborough, the Orange <br /> 49 County Schools District and the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools District; and <br /> 50 <br />