it was 2,000 union soldiers, along with general gordon granger.e of the slaves once they heard they were free were jubilant. others were depressed, because they had never been on their own. they didn't have a place to go. they didn't have any money to purchase anything. so a lot of the slaves stayed at first baptist church, which was established in 1840. we were at the ashton villa, which was the first brick mansion constructed on galveston island. it was constructed in 1859. this place also served as the residence for the confederate army. and then later gordon granger's residence when he arrived on june 18th, 1865. we've been having a celebration here at ashton villa for 36 years. and it coincided with the state of texas holiday for juneteenth. the texas state holiday occurred by an african-american representative by the name of al edwards of houston, texas. he remembered as a kid

and then later gordon granger's residence when he arrived on june 18th, 1865. we've been having a celebration here at ashton villa for 36 years. and it coincided with the state of texas holiday for juneteenth. the texas state holiday occurred by an african-american representative by the name of al edwards of houston, texas. he remembered as a kid growing up the celebration of juneteenth. so he introduced a law making that a paid holiday. there were only eight african-american legislators black legislators in the legislature. and this bill passed. and it was signed into law. and it went into effect june 13, 1979. it was mainly here in the south where the celebration was -- you had a major celebration. today you have big celebrations in milwaukee. you have los angeles, washington d.c., new york, you know san antonio. there are a lot of -- over 40 states. we've been told that there are at least five foreign countries that even celebrate the juneteenth emancipation day. this date is very