Juneteenth was remembered and celebrated Saturday in Elizabethtown.
The event featured music, food, a bounce house and other activities for the kids and a list of speakers that included Rev. Corey Lyons, Rev. Maria B. Lacewell and Rev. Dr. Louie Boykin.
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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
Juneteenth, which is a combination of June and 19, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans on June 19, 1865.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, in 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years would pass, however, before the news reached African Americans living in Texas.
It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, that the state’s residents finally learned that slavery had been abolished. The former slaves immediately began to celebrate with prayer, feasting, song, and dance.
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