Click on this graphic to see some vintage photos (a bit grainy) in this Juneteenth video, featuring music by Ralph Stanley from the soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou :




Reference:
barstowmama. (2008). Happy Juneteenth...Just what does that mean? [video]. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqdnk_ThWc0.

Juneteenth and the Spirit of Freedom Memorial

African American Men Became Their Own Emancipators

Harry Jones, Assistant Director and Curator of the African American Civil War Museum, offers a description of the real significance of the Juneteenth celebration.

View this NPR video of the true significance of Juneteenth and a memorial called the Spirit of Freedom, dedicated in 1998 and inscribed with the names of 209,145 men of African descent who joined the Bureau of United States Colored Troops.

According to Jones, President Abraham Lincoln made an agreement with these men to help bring the 11 southern states back into the Union. He proposed that this was the only way that all persons held as slaves would be freed. Texas was the last Confederate holdout and the United States Colored Troops fought the Battle of Palmetto Ranch in May 1865, considered the last battle of the Civil War. Major Gordon Granger became Military Governor of Texas and published General Order #3, stating that all federal laws applied, including the Emancipation Proclamation. The United States Colored Troops had gained freedom for all.

Reference:

Hill, L. (2008). The story behind Juneteenth: From war to freedom. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from the National Public Radio (NPR) website at http://www.npr.org/programs/tmm/2008/06/Juneteenth/index.html.

For more information on the Spirit of Freedom memorial and its sculptor, Ed Hamilton, go to http://www.edhamiltonworks.com/spirit_of_freedom.htm