By Reverend Dorothy S. Boulware | Word In Black
(WIB) – On Juneteenth, Galveston neighbors and visitors from across the country flock to a cute church with a red door that catches the eye of passersby.
And they have gathered there to celebrate their freedom from slavery for the past 158 years.
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“We’ve been celebrating Juneteenth for as long as I can remember, and it’s central to the life of our community,” said Sharon Gillins, a Texas genealogist and trustee of Reedy Chapel AME Church.
In fact, when neighbors first gathered to celebrate their newly gained freedom on Jan. 1, 1866, they were standing on land then owned by Reedy Chapel, a southern black Methodist Episcopal church located in the Texas city.
They gathered on New Year’s Day, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. People came together in response to an invitation that appeared in Flake’s Daily Bulletin on December 31, 1865. Galveston residents marched from Central Square, where the old Galveston Courthouse stood, accompanied by invited Buffalo Soldiers to maintain order. The event was advertised as for “all colored people and their friends.”
It was what was called the first Emancipation Day celebration.
They listened to General Order No. 3 being read aloud to hear the official language that had proclaimed their freedom six months earlier, on June 19, 1865.
Gillins makes a point of dispelling the myth that slaves were working happily, unaware of the freedom proclaimed in the Emancipation Proclamation.
Despite false stories that insinuated that enslaved people did not know they had been freed, thanks to the Black press, the real records show that they certainly did know.
“We have the articles and we have the clips, and Galveston is a port city, so there’s no way the news of the Emancipation Proclamation wouldn’t have reached them,” Gillins said.
But they couldn’t just walk away under the watch of thousands of Confederate soldiers, so perhaps they were secretly celebrating the freedom they hadn’t experienced yet but believed they would eventually.
It is easy to imagine the frustration of working every day, knowing that they were legally freed from the bonds that had held them in bondage since they came to this country. Imagine being granted freedom, but remaining held by owners who had no intention of releasing them without coercion. So they worked and they waited. Perhaps they celebrated in secret, under the cover of clouds and night, anxiously awaiting the actual moment to come.
“Texas just refused to follow the law. Texas basically said, if you want them to be free, you go and free them,” Texas author DJ Cox suggested in the 2002 documentary “Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom.”
And on January 2, 1866, a newspaper reported: “Despite the storm, from 800 to 1000 men, women and children took part in the demonstration. The women pulled up their skirts and walked along the sidewalks, the men through the streets. The procession was orderly and to the credit of those who took part.”
The paper went on to report on a meeting held at the “Colored” Church on Broadway, “where several speakers addressed the crowd, including General Gregory, Adjutant General of the Freedmen’s Service.”
The newly freed people celebrated Juneteenth in churches on June 19 of that year, giving thanks to God for their freedom.
Today, Reedy Chapel AME is designated as the historic Mother Church of Texas, and although it seats 350, on Juneteenth there are chairs in the aisles and people standing in the back, happy that everyone can take part in the historic celebration.
You are invited to bring your family and friends, especially children, as activities have been added to keep the kids entertained and to let them know they can be part of the fun and history.
“We’ll have a waterslide and a photo booth. We’ll have food and craft vendors and a photo booth,” Gillins said.
Then at 6 p.m., they will assemble at the Old Galveston Courthouse and, led by soldiers from the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, will march approximately three blocks to the church for the evening ceremony at 6:30 p.m.
While the atmosphere will be much more celebratory than the first ceremony, the events on the day will be similar to those of previous years: Speeches of encouragement and the reading of General Order No. 3 will give the ceremony the same formal feel as in previous years.
“People want to think of this as just a Black person or just a Texan, but it’s not. This is a freedom for everyone, and we encourage you to celebrate it from June 19th through July 4th,” Opal Lee, known as the Juneteenth Grandmother, said in “Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom.”
As for Reedy Chapel, “people come all year round now,” Gillins said. “It’s the mother church of Texas, and it’s a cute little church with the red door and the steeple and the stained-glass windows, so people want to visit, and curiosity draws them in.”
