Second annual Juneteenth event returns to Gonzales

The Gonzales Main Street will host its second annual Juneteenth celebration at Texas Independence Square this Saturday, June 17 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Contests and activities begin at 4 p.m. and include a watermelon eating contest, bounce house, hula hoop contest, petting zoo and coloring page contest.

The celebration will include gospel music by Minister Everett Hughes & Anointed Company (5:15 p.m. to 6 p.m.) and international recording and performance artist Beverly Houston & Breezin’ Band (6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.).

The event will close out with a Lighted Sling Shot and Motorbike Parade at 9 p.m. going from the Edwards Center to Independence Square. Applications for the parade can be obtained by contacting the Edwards Association at GeneSt99@aol.com or by calling 830-857-3764. Awards will be given for first, second and third place decorated parade entries after the parade.

There will also be food trucks, merchandise vendors, contests and much more fun.

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in Texas; on June 19, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal arrived in Galveston, Texas to inform the enslaved black and African Americans of the region that the Emancipation Proclamation had freed them.

The proclamation as read states:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

Granger and his troops rode on horseback through the island announcing the news in several historic and visitable locations from Ashton Villa, Reedy AME Chapel and the Osterman Building in Galveston.

For more history of Juneteeth, please go to https://www.galvestonhistory.org/news/juneteenth-and-general-order-no-3.