Juneteenth Events
The federal holiday is
Monday, June 19, but there are many celebratory events happening before then.
https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/a-preview-of-juneteenth-events/Content?oid=20138650Anyone here celebrate this holiday? If so how do you celebrate?
Considered the
longest running Black holiday in the U.S., Juneteenth has long been called America’s second Independence Day, though it wasn’t recognized by the federal government until two years ago, 155 years after it was first celebrated.
The Emancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people may have been signed in 1863, but Texas went right on operating as if slavery was still legal. The reason was simple: there wasn’t much enforcement in areas still under Confederate control. It took another 2.5 years for Major General Gordon Granger and his Union Army troops to march into Galveston, Texas and free the enslaved people there. Because it happened on June 19, the name Juneteenth evolved as a combination of the two words.
In the early years after Juneteenth began, many people celebrated with family gatherings and picnics, prayer and religious services, speeches and educational events and festivals with food, music and dancing. But there were far fewer Juneteenth celebrations during the Jim Crow era when the lives of Black Americans were strictly controlled.
It was the Civil Rights era that reignited interest in the anniversary of enslaved people being freed. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s March on Washington was purposely scheduled to coincide with Juneteenth. Many march participants took the celebration back to their home states after the rally and eventually a movement was born to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Finally in 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
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As for Juneteenth’s message, Ohio State University professor Dr. Trevon Young told Bloomberg last June that “Juneteenth should remind Americans that emancipation was necessary but insufficient. There needs to be an actual grappling with how racial injustice is still shaping the lives of Black Americans and Black folks in America by extension, today.”
Juneteenth used to be mainly celebrated by southern Black people -especially Black Texans- with big and small gatherings, comfort food and Black anthems. But since becoming an established holiday, it’s now celebrated countrywide. With the informal holiday becoming an official one comes commodification - yes, Virginia, Walmart did come up with a Juneteenth-flavored ice cream, resulting in plenty of outrage.
But there's also an array of public events. Here are a few: Elegba Folklore Society will be hosting Juneteenth 2023: A Freedom Celebration
during the weekend of June 10-11.On
Sunday, June 11, the African Burial Ground is the setting for Dancing with the Ancestors
Torch-Lit Night Walk along the Trail of Enslaved Africans will be held on
Saturday, June 10 at 7 p.m. at 1308 Brander Street. Dancing with the Ancestors June 11, 5-9 p.m. at the African Burial Ground, 1540 East Broad Street. Efsinc.org
Read others at this link:
https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/a-preview-of-juneteenth-events/Content?oid=20138650
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