Juneteenth Celebrates Emancipation on the Park Strip

The annual Juneteenth Festival, celebrating freedom and diversity, will be held on the Delaney Park Strip, June 13-15 from 1p.m. to 10 p.m. 

OutMusic Award Recipient Irina Rivkin plays at 7 p.m. on June 14. Irina's Alaska Tour, and a review of her cd "upwelling," are posted here.

(This is not a GLBT event, but Irina is 'family' and the event is open to all. Perhaps I need a new category, for other diversity events that the GLBT community can support.)

The 19th of June, known as "Juneteenth," is the date when slavery ended in America. 

Although rumors of freedom were widespread, the announcement of emancipation did not come to the last group of slaves until Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to read General Order No. 3, on the 19th of June, 1865.

This was more than two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, officially ending slavery. 

The Anchorage Juneteenth Celebration started in 1993 as a 1-day celebration at the Fairview Rec Center. The celebration moved to the Park Strip in 1995 and became a 3-day event. The African American Historical Society of Alaska (AAHSA) organizes Juneteenth.

Juneteenth supporters are hopeful that the "19th of June" will finally be established as a national holiday observance in America. Senator Barack Obama has been a key sponsor of Juneteenth legislation, and a keynote speaker at the annual Juneteenth Congressional Reception.

President George W. Bush has not participated in the annual Washington Juneteenth National Holiday Observance since taking office in 2000.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Juneteenth is America’s 2nd Independence Day celebration. Americans of African descent were trapped in the tyranny of enslavement on the country’s first “4th of July”, 1776, Independence Day.

It took over 88 for the news of freedom to be announced in Southwest Texas, over two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln.

29 states recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance, the District of Columbia, as well as the Congress of the United States.

Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!

“DOC”
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
http://www.Juneteenth.us
http://www.19thofJune.com
http://www.njclc.com
http://www.JuneteenthJazz.com

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