Editing Groesbeck, Texas (section)

=== Reconstruction ===

After the Civil War, in June 1865, the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] was read from the front porch of the largest slaveholder in the county, Logan Stroud, who held over 150 people in bondage.<ref>https://www.limestone-county-historical-museum.com/limestone-county-history/#:~:text=In%201861%2C%20ninety%2Deight%20percent,were%20organized%20in%20the%20county.</ref> Four future African-American Texas legislators were freed in Limestone county that day, [[Ralph Long]], [[Sheppard Mullins]], and [[David Medlock Jr.]] and [[Giles Cotton]] who were both freed from Stroud's estate.<ref>https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cotton-giles</ref><ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=dJVOIj_iXgMC&dq=%22sheppard.mullins%22+texas&pg=PA337#v=onepage&q=%22sheppard.mullins%22%20texas&f=false</ref>
:"Ecstasy! Banjos twanged as couples danced and women laughed and children shouted. Grown men wept and jubilation reigned. Release! Liberty! Deliverance!"<ref>https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2850&context=ethj</ref>

[[Juneteenth]] has been celebrated since then in Booker T. Washington park along Lake Mexia, with early crowds reaching 20,000 as they listened to passionate speeches by local preachers and politicians. Separately, white veterans of the Civil War began their own summer gathering nearby at [[Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site]], with theirs peaking at 5,000 in attendance.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=dJVOIj_iXgMC&dq=%22sheppard.mullins%22+texas&pg=PA337#v=onepage&q=%22sheppard.mullins%22%20texas&f=false</ref>

During the [[Reconstruction era]], Limestone county experienced heightened racial tensions. In June 1867 Limestone County was assigned a [[Freedmen's Bureau]] agent who was shot and killed within 6 months of his arrival.<ref name="auto3">https://www.shsu.edu/dotAsset/c0ac2b23-8d71-4de2-af31-5bceef4798d8.pdf</ref> In October 1872, a Mexican man, accused of theft, was lynched by several vigilantes in Groesbeck.<ref>https://library.uta.edu/borderland/event/1124</ref>