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.