First Annual Juneteenth Celebration at Ashton Villa (1979)

In 1979, former Galveston city manager Doug Matthews and State Representative Al Edwards organized the first annual Juneteenth commemoration at Ashton Villa, reviving and formalizing a tradition of celebration that dated back to the original 1865 emancipation but had faded from prominence in the city over the ensuing century. The event drew on a persistent local legend that General Order No. 3 had been read from the home's iron balcony, a claim historians have since found no contemporary evidence to support.