Juneteenth Celebration: June 15
Trinity has been invited to participate in Juneteenth celebrations by the Northern Kentucky Juneteenth Committee. Feel free to attend wearing a Trinity shirt. Events this weekend include:
Freedom Day Parade:
11 a.m., Saturday, June 15. (Line up at 10 a.m. on Prospect Street between Ninth and Robbins streets near Randolph Park). The route will be west on Ninth, north on Greenup, west on Second Street (East Rivercenter Boulevard), and north on Madison Avenue to the Madison Overlook.
Juneteenth Day Celebration
11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, June 15, at Covington Plaza. The day will kick off with a ceremony. It will also include the Black Excellence Awards, Juneteenth Bingo, a fashion show, entertainment, food and drink, Spoken Word, a children’s dance contest, kids activities between noon and 8 p.m. (including a Bounce House, games, prizes, Champ Camp, Kona Ice, and face painting). Vendors will also have booths promoting programs, resources, and initiatives offering community support.
More information about these events can be seen on the Northern Kentucky Juneteenth Facebook page.
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The history of Juneteenth
Juneteenth – a combination of June and nineteenth and observed on or around that date – has long been celebrated by many African Americans as “Freedom Day” or “Juneteenth Independence Day,” marking the end to slavery in the United States.
Though President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it wasn’t enforced in a number of places until the Civil War ended two years later. Slave owners in Mississippi, Louisiana, and others migrated to Texas to escape the Union Army’s reach.
The last of the Confederate forces didn’t surrender until June 2, 1865. Then on June 19 of that year, U.S. Army General Gordon Granger (who by the way is buried in Lexington, Ky.) took 1,800 Union soldiers to Galveston, Texas, to share the news that the war was over and that enslaved people were now legally free.
A year later, the first celebration of “Jubilee Day” was held in Texas.
Official recognition
Nation: But Juneteenth didn’t become a federal holiday until 2021, when President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. All 50 states recognize Juneteenth in some fashion, either as a holiday or day of observance.
City: The following year, the Covington Board of Commissioners voted Jan. 11, 2022, to recognize Juneteenth – in an order saluting the country’s “second Independence Day” – as an official City holiday.
State: After the Kentucky General Assembly again this year declined to enact legislation making the day an official state holiday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear last month signed an executive order declaring it a state Executive Branch holiday.
