A small but mighty crowd stood 6ft apart in the blistering Texas sun at 10am on the lawn of Galveston’s historic Ashton Villa.
The Ashton Villa building once served as a residence of the Confederate army during the civil war. It is the same building from which Mj Gen Gordon Granger of the Union army delivered news that all slaves were free on 19 June 1865 – forever etched in American History as “Juneteenth”, the nation’s true Independence Day.
The event was held in honor of Juneteenth and as a memorial for Texas state representative Al Edwards, who spent most of his life trying to get legislation passed to make Juneteenth a paid federal holiday. He died six weeks ago.
Rebecca Jimerson pays tribute to Harriet Tubman with an impassioned speech of hope, reminding everyone in attendance of the abolitionist’s contribution to American history.
The climate of today’s America was not lost on the speakers, some of whom were Al Edward’s friends and family. Signs and T-shirts paying homage to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd littered the lawn.
But this was not a protest. It was a celebration of life – the life of Al Edwards and the lives of those 200,000 slaves freed on this day 155 years ago. It was a brief respite for the black community in Texas and around the country in their fight for justice for their brothers and sisters murdered at the hands of police.
Back in Houston, hundreds of “slabs”, or lowrider cars convened in a parking lot just north of the Third Ward, a neighborhood George Floyd once called home. Attendees participated in a “ride for justice”, an event organized by the local rapper Trae tha Truth.
