Source: BLD PWR / BLD PWR Before Juneteenth was a federal holiday, before it was a marketing opportunity, it was a reckoning in the state of Texas. On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Galveston learned what the rest of the country had known for more than two years – they were free. More than 160 years later, Houston has never let that history go. And this weekend, BLD PWR intends to continue that tradition.