Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 434, which would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of the proposed Emancipation National Historic Trail. This 51-mile trail follows the migration route taken by newly freed slaves and other persons of African descent from the major 19th-century seaport town of Galveston to the burgeoning community of Freedmen's Town in Houston. Although President Abraham Lincoln officially ended slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, many slaves were not freed until much later when news of the proclamation reached their towns. The last of those slaves lived in the South and were freed on June 19, 1865, after the Emancipation Proclamation was read in Galveston. On January 1, 1866, the Emancipation Proclamation was read at the African Methodist Episcopal Church on 20th and Broadway, now Reedy Chapel. A large number of the freed slaves marched from the courthouse on 21st and Ball Streets to the church, where the director of the Freedmen's Bureau read the proclamation to the marchers. The Emancipation Proclamation is still read at the church each year at the Juneteenth celebration. Houston, Texas, has rich ties to African American history. The Emancipation Trail proposed by H.R. 434 ends in Freedmen's Town and Emancipation Park in Houston.…”