Welcome to today's edition of Navigator, CityLab's biweekly Saturday newsletter.

If there’s any one site linked to celebrations, it’s the Reedy Chapel AME Church in Galveston, . But there are several contenders from the state where the newly-declared U.S. federal holiday originates. The history of these landmarks tells the story of how the holiday came to be — and the long struggle to achieve its official recognition.

While the Civil War formally ended when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, the news took weeks to reach Texas, which at that time was the frontier border of the former Confederacy. The last official skirmish in the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was waged on the banks of the Rio Grande near Brownsville on May 12–13 — more than a month after the Civil War’s conclusion.

Union troops under General arrived in Galveston on June 18 to finally enforce emancipation in Texas. The next day, Granger issued General Order No. 3 , the notice to Texans that the Civil War was over and that enslaved African Americans had won their freedom. His men marched through Galveston to the Reedy Chapel AME Church to give the order.

Local lore has it that news of emancipation was delivered at Ashton Villa, a mansion built by enslaved workers that served as the local headquarters for the Confederacy. It’s not clear why. Maybe it has something to do with the Union headquarters building where Granger was stationed, which was later demolished. However it came to be, Ashton Villa is another important marker on the Juneteenth map and the site of an annual prayer breakfast to commemorate the holiday.

People attend the ceremony of the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth at historic Ashton Villa. Photographer: Go Nakamura/Getty Images North America

A year after Granger delivered the good news, freedmen in Texas marked the date with a Jubilee Day on June 19. Segregation was already the rule in Texas by then, however. In 1867, the Freedmen’s Bureau bought 10 acres of land in to mark Juneteenth — Emancipation Park, which some historians say is the oldest park in Texas.

Juneteenth celebrations spread across the South and migrated north and west during the Great Migration. Yet the Lone Star State did not recognize Juneteenth for many decades. Al Edwards, a longtime state representative from Houston, fought to gain official recognition for a Texas state Juneteenth holiday. “Mr. Juneteenth,” as he was nicknamed, succeeded in 1979.

A subsequent effort to create a monument to emancipation in Texas led to mixed results. Edwards pushed through a bill authorizing such a memorial in 1999. The statue for the monument was already built — and it got mixed reviews from Texas lawmakers. The statues were marred by anachronisms, including figures wearing high-necked dresses and overalls that weren’t worn at the time. A statue of one figure struck some critics as a stand-in for Edwards himself.

The Texas legislature scrapped the Juneteenth monument in 2011. One of the statues was moved to Ashton Villa in Galveston and rededicated to Edwards (it really does look like him).

People pose in front of the statue of former Texas Representative Al Edwards. Photographer: Go Nakamura/Getty Images North America

The other five statues were dumped at a foundry in Bastrop, Texas. For years, nobody could figure out what to do with them — the commission that authorized them had been disbanded — and the monument risked being forgotten, perhaps wisely. Eventually, though, these misfits found a new home at the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin.

A few years ago, in 2016, a new monument to the broader African American experience in Texas was dedicated on the grounds of the state capitol. Houston’s Emancipation Park got a restoration the next year, a project led by Phil Freelon. An architect who designed many Black cultural memory projects before his death in 2019, Freelon designed a highly accessible yet still modernist pavilion for Emancipation Park, qualities that were common in his work. Edwards (“Mr. Juneteenth”) died in 2020. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of the U.S. Congress and another lawmaker from Houston, pushed for national recognition for Juneteenth . This week it became an official second Independence Day for the country.

— Kriston Capps What we’re writing:

A eulogy for the paper menu — and a look into the future of eating out Short-haul flights out of Germany may soon be a thing of the past As sea levels and temperatures rise, Bangladesh is trying to make space for climate migrants To combat pollution and prepare for post-pandemic pedestrians, London’s Oxford Circus is going car-free Escalating conflict in New York City’s Washington Square Park tests the limits of using police as the chief problem solvers in public space What we’re taking in:

On the belated recognition of emancipation that Juneteenth honors: “In this country, hiding history has always been about maintaining control, denying concession, and delaying justice.” ( The Atlantic ) Eleven mayors from Tullahassee, Oklahoma, to Sacramento, California, mark Juneteenth by pledging to explore reparations programs in their cities ( CalMatters ) Residents are being evicted from their houseboats, illegally anchored in Sausalito. But when their boats are crushed, where do they go? ( San Francisco Chronicle ) A map of the United Fonts of America ( Big Think ) What happens when creators for the audio app Clubhouse go to an actual, real-life party ( The Verge ) Did the guy who said he got swallowed by a whale (and live to tell the tale) actually get swallowed by a whale? It’s very possible. ( Boston Globe ) Views from the ground: @ benvanloon.jpg captures a “pillar of the community” in Chicago @ oscar_bragos tours Singapore University of Technology and Design @ saztravel watches cruise ships pass and rain fall in Hong Kong

Tag us with the hashtag #citylabontheground so we can shout out your *photos* on CityLab’s Instagram page or pull them together for the next edition of Navigator.

See you in a few weeks!

-Sarah Holder

FOLLOW US GET THE NEWSLETTER

Sponsored Content The power of PayPal online, now in person.

Give your small business an easy way to accept touch-free, in-person payments. Create a unique QR code with the PayPal app and display it on your device or as a printout in store. Download the app. Customer must have PayPal account and app to pay. PayPal

Like getting the CityLab Daily newsletter? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber- only newsletters.

You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's CityLab Daily newsletter.

Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022