The Juneteenth Foundation, Inc. (JFI) and the Dunbar Heritage Association (DHA) have revamped their annual citywide Juneteenth celebrations this year in order to celebrate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in America. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free — two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official Jan. 1, 1863.
According to Dunbar Heritage Association Secretary Jonafa Banbury, large celebrations of Juneteenth began in 1866. For African-American communities this day became tantamount to the Fourth of July and the celebrations contained similar fare — speakers with inspirational messages, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, barbeques, games, rodeos and dances.
