Author: Sharon Hunt

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2022-05-19

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 166982196X

The main purpose of presenting the work is to congratulate the Texas former slaves and their ancestors for their perseverance in celebrating the first unofficial JUNETEENTH holiday in 1866 and their challenge of getting the JUNETEENTH -Emancipation Day made into a state holiday and then a national federal holiday in 2021. For years, the Texas African-Americans have shown the world the true meaning of the JUNETEENTH Celebration. They always had Jublilee celebrations, to show the progress of former slaves with inventions, education, church gatherings and Texas food. As a result of JUNETEENTH, African Americans were able to get education and worship freely, not in hollows or groves or the back of churches, in galleries or behind the pulpits in the white churches, if the slaves were allowed to attend the white churches. In many cases, the slaves were not allowed to read the Bible nor sing or pray. The challenges of the former Texas slaves promoted the establishing of Black churches, Black elementary and high school and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Blacks were prohibited from going to most white schools until the mid-1900s. Slaves at the time had been in the country for more than 300 hundred years without being allowed to attend school, church or have proper housing or food, but God was our father. Out of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, African-Americans were able to achieve basic freedom to compete in the world and to later on integrate white colleges and universities. The Emancipation Proclamation was written and issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. All slaves were freed two years later in 1865. Even though the slaves were freed two years after the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Texas slaves were the last slaves to learn that all slaves were free in 1865. The Texas former slaves were the first to celebrate JUNETEENTH, because the Texas slaves were freed on this date. The Texas former slaves celebrated FIRST JUNETEENTH in 1866.