When you get to church this Sunday at either 8am or 10:15am for worship, arrive a little early so you have time to pull out the Book of Common Prayer in the rack in front of you. Look at the spine and notice whether it’s smooth or cracked. Now turn it over to look at the page edges and notice where the dark stripes are.

Over two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, that “all slaves are free.” Real freedom did not come to most of the “freed” people in Texas until somewhat later, and laws quickly sprang up to control and circumscribe their lives. Nevertheless, African Americans adopted the date of Granger’s order to celebrate emancipation.