Monthly Diversity Council Daily Tribune article for June 2011

Subject line: Diversity Dispatch: Juneteenth

June 19, 2011, is Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, the earliest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. According to the US government website Answers.USA.gov, Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the end of the Civil War and of slavery by Union troops in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865—two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (http://tinyurl.com/3ulm34r).

This day-, week-, or month-long celebration traditionally included guest speakers, prayer services, picnics and barbecues, family gatherings, and activities such as rodeos, fishing, and baseball. Celebration of the holiday underwent a resurgence and renewal during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s and today “celebrates African American freedom and achievement, while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures” (http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm).

Rochester has a long history of Juneteenth observance. In his Independence Day address in Rochester on July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass asked the famous question, ”What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”, which “continues as the best historic reminder of why the ‘4th of July’ should never be celebrated without being reminded of the significance of the ‘19th of June’ in America” (http://www.juneteenth.us/douglass/index.html). Rochester’s Juneteenth celebration this year takes place on Saturday, June 18, from 11 AM to 8 PM in Susan B. Anthony Square, Rochester, across from the Frederick Douglass Resource Center (36 King St., Rochester), with a parade followed by a festival of words, music, and performances with vendors, food, and children’s activities.

This is part of a monthly series of articles from the Diversity Council about topics related to diversity and multiculturalism.