{"id":367640,"date":"2026-06-19T21:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367640\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:25:13","slug":"oakland-county-celebrates-juneteenth-celebrates-art-and-essay-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367640\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland County Celebrates Juneteenth, Celebrates Art and Essay Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/auburnhills.org\/community\/downtown\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-153742 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AD_OaklandCountyTimes_2023864-x-216-v6-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"216\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oakland County Celebrates Juneteenth, Celebrates Art and Essay Winners<\/p>\n<p>(Crystal A. Proxmire, June 19, 2026)<\/p>\n<p>On Jan 1, 1893, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the United States. However, freedom was not instant, especially in Confederate-controlled states like Texas. On June 19, 1865, over 250,000 enslaved people were officially proclaimed free, and that date became known as Juneteenth.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until 2021 that Juneteenth became a national holiday, though states had been recognizing it with increasing frequency beginning with Texas who made it an official state holiday in 1980.This holiday was honored by Oakland County with an event on Thursday, as well as an art and essay contest for students across the county.<\/p>\n<p>Clara Assumpta Buarno of Hill Elementary in Troy won the essay contest for grades K-3.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cFreedom means being able to make choices and be yourself,\u201d Bunao wrote. \u201cI think freedom is very important because it helps people learn, grow and be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The celebration, in front of the Oakland County Courthouse, featured inspirational speakers, the Black National Anthem, the Juneteenth flag raising, live entertainment, food trucks, local organizations and fun activities for families. contest winners were also recognized.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-170016\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Oakland-County-Juneteenth_011.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"720\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter congratulated this year\u2019s winners and praised the students for their thoughtful submissions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJuneteenth is a time to reflect on our nation\u2019s history while recognizing the importance of freedom and respect for every person,\u201d said Coulter. \u201cThese students demonstrated remarkable creativity and maturity in exploring what freedom means \u2014 not only as a historical milestone but also as a responsibility we all share today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hazelparkschools.org\/enroll-now\/enroll-now\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-168267 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hazel-Park-Schools-Ad_05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"216\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The winners were recognized at the celebration, and each received a $150 gift card.<\/p>\n<p>Winners are:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oakgov.com\/home\/showpublisheddocument\/31857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/oaklandcounty115.com\/home\/showpublisheddocument\/31857\" aria-label=\"Grades K-3: Clara Assumpta Bunao \u2014 Hill Elementary School, Troy, Mich. - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\">Grades K-3: Clara Assumpta Bunao \u2014 Hill Elementary School, Troy, Mich.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandcounty115.com\/2026\/06\/19\/oakland-county-celebrates-juneteenth-celebrates-art-and-essay-winners\/?print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\"\/>Save this post to PDF<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandcounty115.com\/2026\/06\/19\/oakland-county-celebrates-juneteenth-celebrates-art-and-essay-winners\/?print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\"\/>Print this post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland County Celebrates Juneteenth, Celebrates Art and Essay Winners (Crystal A. Proxmire, June 19, 2026) On Jan 1,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-367640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}