Galveston

Galveston county holds a defining place in the story of Black freedom in the United States. It was here, on June 19, 1865, that Union troops arrived to announce the end of slavery—two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation—giving rise to the celebration now known as Juneteenth. In the decades that followed, Galveston became a hub for Black life along the Gulf Coast, with flourishing churches, schools, and civic organizations rooted in the pursuit of dignity and liberation. Yet this freedom was always shadowed by the realities of segregation, violence, and systemic exclusion. Today, the island of Galveston and the entire Galveston county remains sacred ground—its trees and streets holding the echoes of liberation, resistance, and the enduring hope that freedom delayed is not freedom denied.