Historic Texas island is frontline for preserving rights of Black voters

Galveston Island was the site of the final end of US slavery but Republicans are testing what remains of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to draw a controversial redistricting map

The square in front of the county courthouse on Galveston Island, a barrier island on the Gulf coast of Texas, is dominated by a 40ft statue titled Dignified Resignation that depicts a Confederate soldier coming home at the end of the civil war. He stands tall and defiant, and at his feet is a scroll that reads: Glory in defeat."

The statue, erected in 1911 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, is especially toxic given its location. Galveston Island was the busiest slave port in antebellum Texas, trafficking more than 11,000 enslaved people; it is also the birthplace of Juneteenth, the official US holiday that celebrates the final end of US slavery.