While the celebration originated in the Southern United States, New York City has been celebrating Juneteenth long before it became a national holiday. The Brooklyn Juneteenth Arts Festival, one of the longest-running Juneteenth celebrations in New York, began in 2001 and has expanded tremendously. Historically set in Fort Greene’s Cuyler Gore Park, the festival sees…
“I introduced this to make Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate the end of chattel slavery, America’s original sin, and to bring about celebration, crushing racial divide down to a point of unity,” said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, a lead sponsor of the legislation to designate Juneteenth as a national holiday, commemorating…
Across the country, Juneteenth, a national holiday immortalizing June 19, 1865, the day on which all enslaved people in Texas were freed, has seen a recent public resurgence. Following the police killings of Black citizens Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, amongst others, and subsequent worldwide protests, our country has placed a renewed emphasis on the…
