Tonya Duncan Ellis

On June 19, 1865, the 250,000 enslaved people of Texas learned they were free, ending slavery in the United States. This day was soon to be memorialized with the dedication of a park in Houston. The park was called Emancipation Park, and the day it honored would come to be known as Juneteenth.   In the voice and memory of the park itself — its fields and pools, its protests and cookouts, and, most of all, its people—the 150-year story of Emancipation Park is brought to life.