Today we celebrate Juneteenth, the day when Union General Gordon Granger stood on the balcony of Galveston’s famous Ashton Villa and announced the Civil War was over, the Confederacy had lost, and slaves in Texas were free to chart their own destiny. In Houston, that included founding schools. One of the first classrooms relied on a religiously inspired catechetical method in which questions were asked out loud and students would answer.

One question, however, earned the ire of local media at the time:

“To whom are you indebted for your freedom?”

Answered by: “To the Yankee soldiers.”

EDITORIAL: Today we celebrate freedom not only for people, but for the spirit of a nation

It didn’t take too long for that story of liberation to be replaced by a new narrative of the Lost Cause. Streets were renamed after Confederate figures, statues were erected in their honor and a whitewashed history about the Civil War was propagated throughout our city, culture and classrooms.

No monument better embodies this deceptive retelling than the 1959 Children of the Confederacy plaque in the state capitol, which makes the bizarre and utterly inaccurate claim that “the war between the states was not a rebellion nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.”

A movement is growing within state government to remove the plaque, and there’s little reason to wait. Earlier this month, The Texas Observer obtained emails from the State Preservation Board indicating that Gov. Greg Abbott could have it taken down immediately, if he so desired.

Texans finally find ourselves at a moment when the misleading debris of history is being cleaned away, revealing the true nature of our state and heritage. If we want to be a place that values our freedom, Texans must be eager to celebrate that cause and those who fought for it, and cast aside the figures who vaingloriously sought to obscure and deny the truth.

EDITORIAL: Celebrate Juneteenth at Emancipation Park

That means commemorating historic figures such as Houston Mayor Thomas Scanlan, who integrated City Hall during Reconstruction, and early black leaders such as Jack Yates. It means educating students about the full Civil War story, including the cruelty and pervasiveness of slavery and the tales of Texas’ German-speaking abolitionists.

It means confronting the two Confederate monuments in our own city — a topic that Mayor Sylvester Turner acknowledged on Twitter this week he has the power to address.

For so long, the healing in this country has been impeded by lies and distortions. As it was for the former slaves in Texas, the truth has been delayed. As a result, freedom has not been completely realized. It’s a vital message on Juneteenth, and every day: Telling the truth about our history is the only way to move past it.