'And Still We Rise': Exhibit at Galveston's new Juneteenth museum tells powerful history

GALVESTON — Let's dispense with one Juneteenth legend right away. Major Gen. Gordon Granger, commander of the District of Texas, did not read, as i...

March 20, 2023
4:24 PM

GALVESTON — Let's dispense with one Juneteenth legend right away. Major Gen. Gordon Granger, commander of the District of Texas, did not read, as is often imagined, General Orders No. 3 — which informed Texans that slavery had ended — aloud from a balcony of Ashton Villa, the 1859 brick Victorian Italianate mansion on Galveston's Broadway Avenue. Instead, on June 19, 1865, the ordinance issued by the general was more likely posted at key points around the port city. In fact, the Galveston Historical Foundation and the Texas Historical Commission chose the Osterman Building, not Ashton Villa, for the official Juneteenth state historical plaque because that's where Granger's Union headquarters had been located, and thus the point of origin for the ordinance.

Michael Barnes