A celebration of slavery’s end is returning to downtown Jacksonville this summer.
Jacksonville NAACP will have its fourth annual Juneteenth celebration from 10:30 to 2:30 p.m. June 20 on the downtown square. This year’s event also is being put on by Jacksonville Area Museum. The event will be free to attend.
The day commemorates Juneteenth, which marks the arrival of Union troops into Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to inform the enslaved people there that slavery in Confederate states had ended thanks to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation about two years prior. The day honors the end of slavery in the U.S. and was formally established as a federal holiday in 2021.
This year’s event will be a “reflection of Black African culture and history,” NAACP member Cynthia Morgan said.
Illinois College associate professor of history Brittney Yancy and fellow NAACP member Alberta Robinson will serve as speakers for the event.
Vendors, dancers and food trucks also will be part of the event, Morgan said.
NAACP will be accepting donations for the event in the run-up to Juneteenth, member Ellen Miller said. Members will be on hand to volunteer for the event. Non-members who would like to volunteer should get in touch with the group, Morgan said.
For Morgan and Miller, the importance of celebrating Juneteenth comes from keeping in touch with the history of the day. Miller, who lived in Texas, said she was unaware of holiday for some time.
The two said reflecting on the past is important so people can learn from it.
“You don’t want to make the same mistakes,” Morgan said.