We cannot build a healthier world without addressing the legacy of slavery.
On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas. Two months earlier, Robert E. Lee had surrendered his forces at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War. More than two years before that, President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved populations in states where the Confederate rebellion had been present. Yet these developments had not much affected the practice of slavery in Texas, which had continued until Union General Gordon Granger entered the state and read General Order No. 3, which said, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This prompted celebrations among the newly freed population and marked the end of the enslavement of Black Americans in the US.
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