Island of Color
Where Juneteenth Started
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
PREFACE
This book will endeavor to document or note the many ways in which African Americans entered the American scene via
It should be known and appreciated that in Galveston, African Americans established their first schools, churches and businesses in this part of the country; played in their first organized sports clubs; attended the first medical school in the Southwest; produced leading post-Civil War politicians and the first African American world boxing champion; played orchestral instruments, and helped originate jazz music at the same time it was becoming known in New Orleans, maintaining this musical leadership in the Gulf Coast region through the blues explosion. Texas’ first daily newspaper, the Galveston Daily News, used information and data from an African-American institution of higher learning, now known as Prairie View University.
I take this opportunity to state that the capitalization of racial terminology is purposely inconsistent throughout the book. I have capitalized all proper names, with occasional exception of the word Negro in quotations, and capitalization of the words white and black varies, according to the context as well as time periods in which they are used.
This book is a communication – through me -- between you, the reader, and a segment of our world, in its past, present and future. My best form of expression is music. That being the case, this book automatically took on musical designations. (As anyone close to me would expect.)
PRELUDE
Rev. Ralph Albert Scull’s Description of 19th -
“Gail Borden came to
Up to 1873 there was a large pond of water at 21st and 22nd and M. The
In the Storm of 1875, the Gulf and Bay waters met first on
At the foot of Broadway were many small deep ponds, where fish of two or three pounds were found. Late in the Seventies [1870s], Mayor C. W. Hurley engineered the filling of Broadway from the high sand hills on the beach. Before that time the mule cars on Broadway ran on trussels [trestles] in some places three to four feet from the ground.
On the bay front water washed up to the
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Book Details
About the Book
On this island called Galveston, Texas, African-Americans have a unique position in the history of the world. Natives of this city, and incoming residents, who were people of color, were the pioneers of much of the civilization that occurred in this part of the world. “Juneteenth” has become a term used by persons all over the nation who recognize the validity of the term now synonymous with freedom of the former black-skinned slaves. This term comes from the fact that, in Galveston, Texas, General Granger arrived by ship with orders that were read to the public at Ashton Villa on June 19, 1865. He actually arrived in the harbor on June 17, 1865, and the news leaked out from the deckhands on that date. But the dates are both worthy of the title “Juneteenth”, which is the way the former slaves passed down the news to their progeny. This news came from the official document called the Emancipation Proclamation, which was a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, and sent to the southern states involved in the Confederacy. So Texas was the first of these states to receive this law, and Galveston was the entry port, and therefore had the distinction of being the first place to embrace the freedom of persons of color in the southern part of the new United States of America. There were free men and women of color in Galveston before this announcement was made, so the progress of the city toward racial harmony was already underway. Pioneers of all kinds of institutions and businesses came from Galveston. It is no accident that Galveston has been a city of “firsts”. The titles of “first” have been proven for the state of Texas, because these were recorded and documented in many journals and publications. Some visionaries of African descent have been recorded by name, but since the freed persons of color usually could not read or write (they were forbidden to learn to read or write in slavery), there is little written from their perspective. It is the purpose of this book to reveal what was written by a man of color, my grandfather, who came to Galveston with his family as a small child, immediately after freedom was declared. His words are proven to be true by later documentation of official sources in the city. In addition, recorded words of interviews with numbers of citizens who were alive when this book was begun have been used and preserved on audio tapes. Until now, this story, told from the perspective of the persons who lived it, has been untold. Because of its far reaching effects in the whole world, this story fairly screams to be acknowledged and revealed. It is with great excitement that I bid you to indulge yourself in the luxury of discovery!
About the Author
Izola Ethel Fedford Collins was born in the family home in
She organized and directed three school bands in
Ms. Collins has written articles published in “Southwestern Musician”[Texas Music Educators Association], “Fanfare” [