Juneteenth 2024: Annual celebration at Galveston’s Ashton Villa commemorates day enslaved people learned they were freed [Video]

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) — Tropical downpours couldn’t stop the city of Galveston’s annual Juneteenth celebration.

Galveston is the birthplace of Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 enslaved people there found out they had been freed – after the end of the Civil War, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

It was designated as a federal holiday in 2021.

On Wednesday, the community commemorated the day inside Ashton Villa, an historic site in itself.

It served as the residence for the Confederate Army officers during the Civil War. It’s now where General Order No. 3, which announced the slaves were free, is read as part of an event with a reenactment.

Ashton Villa is also home to a 9-foot tall bronze statue of the late Rep. Al Edwards holding the state law that made Juneteenth a national holiday.

Edwards played a critical role in making Juneteenth a state holiday as he spearheaded the legislation that made it so in 1979. In fact, Texas …