Right now, It's time for the Way Black History Fact. And Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads for Innovative, Fashionable sports whear checkmajorthreads dot com and today I'm going to share with you from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. On June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay,
Texas with news of freedom. More than two hundred and fifty thousand African Americans embraced freedom by executive decree in what became known as June teenth, or Freedom Day, with the principles of self determination, citizenship, and democracy magnifying their hopes and dreams. Those Texans held fast to the promise of true liberty for all. I think that's beautiful. Hope is beautiful. Hope is beautiful.
I know you, I know we're not there yet. That hope is beautiful. It's a beautiful thing to have, right. And you got to imagine your whole life is a slave. You hear this news, you know that's not nothing. This is whole got to be a good day and instilled in eighteen hundred and sixty five.
Well, we're looking at we are still in pursuit of yeah, by the way, and we're looking back on it. But in that moment, I just my heart swells for the people that got this news. All right, let me hear you up on Freedom Zeve, or the eve of January first, eighteen sixty three, the first watch Night services took place.
On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes across the country, awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect, that the stroke of midnight prayers were answered, and as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free, Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the South, reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, spreading
the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation of en slavery throughout the United States. Quote, the people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the ex Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between
employer and hired laborer. This is from Gordon Granger, a Union general, on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five. But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in eighteen sixty three, it cannot be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the western most Confederate state of Texas, and slave people would not be free until much later.
Freedom finally came on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, when some two thousand Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved black people in the state were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as June teenth by the newly freed people in Texas. The post emancipation period, known as recon Instruction eighteen sixty five to eighteen seventy seven, marked an era of great hope, uncertainty,
and struggle for the nation as a whole. Formerly enslaved people immediately sought to reunify families, established schools, run for political office, push radical legislation, and even sue slaveholders for compensation. Given the two hundred plus years of enslavement, such changes were nothing short of amazing. Not even a generation out of slavery, African Americans were inspired and empowered to transform their lives and their country. Juneteenth marks our country's second
independence Day. Although it is long celebrated in the African American community, this monumental event remains largely unknown to most Americans, at least as of a couple of years ago. For the nearly four million newly freed, newly freed, education was a crucial first step to becoming self sufficient. Between eighteen sixty one and nineteen hundred, more than ninety institutions of higher education were founded for African Americans, and you can find more at NMAAHC, DO SI dot edu