On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger stood on the Strand in Galveston and read General Order No. 3 aloud — informing the people of Texas that all enslaved people were free. The Civil War had ended in April. Most had not known. The congregation at Reedy Chapel A.M.E. had existed since 1848, founded by enslaved people on land given to them for worship; after emancipation, it became Texas's first A.M.E. congregation. Freed people chose to stay on this island. They built churches, businesses, and the civic institutions that carried Black life through the generations that followed. The current Reedy Chapel building dates to 1886, survived the 1900 hurricane, and remains an active congregation. The annual observance began as early as 1866. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. What started here was not a monument — it was a community, built by people who had nothing guaranteed and left something that lasted.
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