Last night I celebrated Juneteenth at the Amistad Center for Art and Culture. This jubilee celebration, in its 32nd year- is the longest running Juneteenth event in the country outside of Texas. You heard right, CT has the longest running celebration outside of Texas. Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S.- in 1865, almost two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Juneteenth is short for “June 19th.” It was on that day, in June 1865, that 250,000 people in Galveston, Texas, found out they had been freed from slavery.Every person in this country should be proud of this day, as the day that our country shed the stain of slavery. Let us reflect on the significance of this moment and the hope and possibility of what is to come.
