Happy Juneteenth!
As you may know, on this date in 1865, a Union officer in Galveston, Texas read the order stating that, under Federal law, all slaves in the US were free.
Texas was the westernmost Confederate state and news traveled slowly in those days. (Remember, they didn't have telephones, let alone the Internet.) So slaves in the Lone Star State wouldn't learn of their freedom until two months after the end of the Civil War.
The news might've traveled faster if it had been delivered by this man:
He is, of course, "Major" Taylor: the first African American champion in any sport and one of the greatest athletes who ever lived.
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