Juneteenth – A Celebration of Freedom is a special Dallas Historical Society display that will be on exhibit in the Hall of State from June 16 - 25, 2018. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger stood at Galveston Bay and pronounced that all African American slaves living in Texas were free. Because of the Civil War, no one in Texas had heard word of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Emancipation Proclamation, the 1863 law he signed abolishing slavery in America. In 1989, the day was declared an official state holiday. Items on display will include the only known original copy of the General Order No. 3.