By Mary O’KEEFE

“Each year on June 19, we look back to this day in 1865, on which Union General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War and the insidious institution of slavery. Thousands of enslaved people in Texas, among the last to learn of their independence, were finally freed – more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation,” states a portion of the State of California Juneteenth Proclamation issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 17, 2023.

“On ‘Freedom’s Eve,’ or the eve of Jan. 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered 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 end slavery throughout the United States,” according to the Smithsonian.

However, there were some in the Confederate territory who would not immediately be freed.

On Friday, after decades of planning, the International African American Museum will hold its grand opening community celebration in Charleston, South Carolina. On the following Tuesday, June 27, the museum will be open to the public.

“The International African American Museum (IAAM) explores cultures and knowledge systems retained and adapted by Africans in the Americas and the diverse journeys and achievements of these individuals and their descendants in South Carolina, the United States, and throughout the African Diaspora,” according to https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/international-african-american-museum.

The creation of the museum was first announced in 2000, an idea from former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. In 2002, a steering committee was formed to explore the development of the museum and in 2005 Congressman Jim Clyburn became the museum’s first chair of the board of directors.

For anyone planning a trip to South Carolina or who would like information on the museum go to iaamuseum.org or call (843) 872-5352.