The only known surviving copy of General Order No. 3, the 1865 document that announced the end of slavery in Texas, will be displayed at the Hall of State in Fair Park in Dallas starting on June 19.
The Dallas Historical Society is showcasing the handbill as part of its “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom” exhibit, which runs through August 31 and reopens for the State Fair of Texas on September 26.
Issued by Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston on June 19, 1865, General Order No. 3 declared “all slaves are free,” marking the end of institutional slavery in Texas, the last Confederate state to enforce it. This came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
At the time, an estimated 250,000 Black people remained enslaved in Texas when 2,000 Union troops arrived. The order was posted as handbills and published in newspapers, with news of freedom spreading by word of mouth.
The document, acquired by the Dallas Historical Society in the 1960s from the family of George Bannerman Dealey, the society’s founder in 1922, will remain on display until October 19 before returning to the archives. The original signed order is housed in the National Archives.
Historian W. Marvin Dulaney, deputy director of the Dallas African American Museum, emphasized the significance of Juneteenth, stating, “Now we get to June 19th, 1865, where finally … the Emancipation Proclamation is read in the last place that basically needs to be read, which is here in Texas.”
Dulaney and Levi Davis, Dallas’ first African American assistant city manager, will discuss their experiences with segregation and racism during a panel at the Hall of State on June 19.
The order also instructed freedmen “to remain at their present homes, and work for wages” for their former enslavers and cautioned against gathering at military outposts, stating they would “not be supported in idleness.”
In Fort Worth, Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” will not lead her annual 2.5-mile Walk for Freedom on June 19 due to health concerns following a May hospitalization, her granddaughter Dione Sims told WFAA.
“It is our plan to have Miss Opal in a safe situation as possible, but still able to enjoy the walk that she had the vision for,” Sims said. “So, she may be present and she may not. But if she is, she’ll be in a vehicle.”
If unable to attend, Lee will participate virtually. Sims, president of Unity Unlimited Incorporated, will lead the walk at 9 a.m. at Farrington Field.
Lee, instrumental in making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, has also championed the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.
Sims, a board member, told WFAA in May, “The ability for us to impact, you know, not just Fort Worth, but the nation, with the story of Emancipation, wherever it happened. I think that’s the beauty of the National Juneteenth Museum.”