How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Smith is in Galveston, Texas, at Ashton Villa, where he watches Stephen Duncan reenacting the myth that Gordon Granger read General Order Number 3 from the balcony. The event is the 40th Al Edwards Sr.’s Juneteenth Prayer Breakfast. Smith notes that the majority of the visitors are Black. The event continues with a group of rotating speakers, students from Nia Cultural Center’s Freedom School, along with Stephen as Granger, presenting the history of US and Texas. The presentation includes facts such as the enslavement of Indigenous people in the Americas; the 1528 arrival of Estevanico, the first non-Native enslaved person in Galveston; and a chronology of events leading up to Juneteenth. Smith speaks to Kathy Tiernan, one of the program organizers. She expresses the need for youth involvement as older generations pass on, the idea of community education and alternatives to traditional educational models, and the necessity of interracial community involvement. 

Following a prayer by Reverend Lewis Simpson, Jr., the group sings “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem. Smith describes the feeling that washes over him as “[t]he crowd turned into a congregation” (182), noting that this time moved him in a way he had not experienced the countless other times he’s sang the song.