Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on the first day of 1863, the news didn’t reach Texas until two and a half years later, when Union troops arrived in Galveston to let enslaved people know they were free. Nonprofit Greater East Austin Youth Association commemorates the occasion each year with a parade weaving through the Eastside and culminating in a family-friendly festival in Rosewood Neighborhood Park offering live music, vendors, children’s activities, food, and lots of fun.
Thu., June 19