GALVESTON, Texas — Former President Joe Biden delivered a message of unity Thursday night during a Juneteenth celebration at a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston, Texas.

“Juneteenth represents the long hard night of slavery and subjugation and the promise of the joyful morning to come,” Biden told the Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church congregation.

In 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday. The day marks the end of slavery by commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston.

Reedy Chapel, often referred to as the “Mother Church of Texas,” was where enslaved people gathered to worship.

“It’s important because it’s not only Black history but American history,” said Greg Sherman, who attended the Juneteenth celebration

That church, the first and oldest operating AME church in the state, is one of the locations where an order announcing the end of slavery in Texas was announced on that day in 1865.

“Folks, I don’t only come here to commemorate the past, I come here because we know the good Lord is not done with us yet,” Biden said. “We got work to do.”

Reedy holds a Juneteenth celebration each year, where people pack the church to learn about the history behind the holiday.

“We have the Buffalo Soldiers come and they participate and read the proclamation, and we ring the bell. We say, ‘Freedom. Freedom.’ And then on our way back, we sing the songs that our ancestors sang on that way. ‘Oh freedom, oh freedom,’ you know? And so, I can’t really describe it because it’s a feeling. It’s, as the young people would say, it’s a ‘vibe’ on that day,” Reedy Church Rev. Lernette Patterson said.

This was be Biden’s first visit to Galveston since signing the bill that made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.

The Associated Press and Seun Min Kim contributed to this report.

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