Emancipation Park

The Handbook of Texas gives the ground a name the marker leaves out: Sims Grove, where Juneteenth had been celebrated since about 1914. In 1931 the Band and Park Association formed to buy the grove, and the purchase was completed and the park dedicated in 1933. The county those celebrants lived in had counted 4,135 enslaved people among its 8,191 residents in 1860, about half the population, and almost 60 percent of its people were Black in 1870.

What the plaque says

Emancipation Park Celebrations of "Juneteenth"--the anniversary of the June 19, 1865 emancipation of Texas slaves--were first held in homes and churches. Later, festivities took place outdoors. By 1915, Huntsville blacks, led by former slave Jane Ward (d. 1933), had moved the annual observance to this site, known as Emancipation Park. Dave Williams, another former slave, organized the Band and Park Association to raise the down payment on the property. In 1933, R. A. Josey, a white businessman, completed purchase of the land for use by the black community. The 9.04 acre site became a city park in 1963.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 31 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Jesse Parker — 0.3 mi
• Joshua Houston — 0.3 mi
• Ball, The Rev. Thomas H. — 0.3 mi
• Pleasant Williams Kittrell — 0.3 mi