Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
WHEREAS, isolated from both Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War, Texas had <br /> become a refuge for those who wished to continue the practice of holding human beings as <br /> property; and <br /> WHEREAS, since the capture of New Orleans in 1862, people who held human beings as <br /> property in Mississippi, Louisiana and other points east had been migrating to Texas to escape <br /> the Union Army's reach and more than 150,000 people held in bondage had been moved to <br /> Texas; and the White people of Texas actively worked to ensure that the people held in <br /> bondage, who should have been freed in 1863, did not hear of the freedom granted by the <br /> Emancipation Proclamation; and <br /> WHEREAS, although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, there <br /> were still a total of 250,000 people held as human chattel in Texas when U.S. Army General <br /> Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and on June 19, 1865—Juneteenth — proclaimed <br /> the war had ended and so had the captivity of people who had been enslaved; and <br /> WHEREAS, the following is the text of the official recorded version of the order: <br /> "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive <br /> of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights <br /> and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore <br /> existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are <br /> advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that <br /> they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness <br /> either there or elsewhere."; and <br /> WHEREAS, although news of emancipation came at different times during that Texas summer <br /> and autumn 1865, African Americans in Texas started to celebrate the freedom of enslaved <br /> persons on June 19 (Juneteenth) as their day of celebration; and <br /> WHEREAS, beginning in 1866, they held parades, barbecues, and gave speeches in <br /> remembrance of their liberation. The oldest of the surviving formerly enslaved people were <br /> often given a place of honor and Black Texans initially used these gatherings to attempt to <br /> locate family members from whom they had been separated and soon these events became <br /> staging areas for family reunions and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved through <br /> hostile environments; and <br /> WHEREAS, by 1900, Juneteenth had unofficially become Texas Emancipation Day and was <br /> sponsored by black churches and civic organizations; and <br /> WHEREAS, with the migration of African Americans from Texas to the West Coast, especially <br /> during World War II, Juneteenth grew in the emerging black communities of Los Angeles, San <br /> Diego, and Oakland in California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington; and <br /> WHEREAS, activists in the 1980s began to advocate for wider recognition of the Juneteenth <br /> Holiday; and <br /> WHEREAS, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday; and <br /> WHEREAS, by June 2020, 47 states and the District of Columbia had established either full or <br /> partial recognition of the holiday— only Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota have not; and <br />