Tour the Proposed Trail
The proposed The proposed trail starts in Galveston at the Osterman Building and Reedy Chapel, where Major General Gordon Granger announced the federal order freeing slaves on June 19, 1865—a date now celebrated as Juneteenth. From Galveston, the trail extends to Houston’s Fourth Ward, where emancipated slaves settled during Reconstruction and built an enclave known as Freedmen’s Town. Advocates say the trail will bring to life the stories of enslaved people in Texas, many of whom didn’t learn of their freedom until Granger’s announcement, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.