Channel 2 Action News gets a tour of museum at the place where Juneteenth started

GALVESTON, Texas — Wednesday marks exactly 159 years since the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free.

That was two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation was signed.

The day is now known as Juneteenth.

At Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas, June 19 is their big day. The historic building is now filled with a Juneteenth exhibit but was said to at one point to have been headquarters for the Confederate army.

[PHOTOS: Channel 2 Action News gets a tour of museum at the place where Juneteenth started]

It sits in the heart of Galveston where a last pocket of African Americans remained enslaved 2.5 years after the emancipation proclamation was signed.

“As we’re looking at everything around us, we’re realizing even more that there is a price to pay for where we are now,” museum visitor Patrick McGrew told Channel 2 photojournalist Brian Ferguson, who went to Galveston to get a look at Ashton Villa.

The exhibit details how Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to confirm slaves were free and to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

The museum includes recordings and videos.

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“We want them to see the journey and walk in their shoes and see how they were able to progress even though they had to meet challenges,” said Tommie D. Boudreaux, who is on the Galveston Historical Foundation.

The exhibit is designed to bring history to life.

“It’s really interactive and I think especially for young people because they’re not going to sit and be idle for a while,” Boudreaux said.

In a time of smartphones and social media, visitors say taking a moment to reflect on the injustice of the past and hope for the future is especially important on Juneteenth.

“We need to look at where we have come from in order to appreciate more where we are right now,” McGrew said.

“I think our country has come a long way, but we still have a long way to go,” museum visitor Shawn Fields said.

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VIDEO: A quick tour of Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas

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