By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph’s celebration of Juneteenth begins this weekend and stretches over the next couple of weeks.
Executive Director, Sara Wilson, with St. Joseph Museums says it all begins this weekend with the theatrical production of Our Town at the Missouri Theater.
“So, we have just a lot of fun stuff going on over the next couple of weeks,” Wilson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I hope everybody will come out and celebrate Juneteenth, because Juneteenth is for everyone. It is a national holiday now and we are all celebrating it together.”
Our Town will be performed at the Missouri Theater Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
A 3-Point Shootout will be held at the Bartlett Center on the 15th. The Juneteenth Gala will be held on the 19th, followed by the Juneteenth Family Festival and Vendor Fair on the 20th and 21st. The Juneteenth Parade and Fashion Show will be held on the 21st, with the Juneteenth Family Picnic the following day.
Wilson says Juneteenth should be a celebration for everyone.
“I think it should be really an exciting celebration of freedom. We live in the United States where we are free,” Wilson says. “And that’s what we want to celebrate is the emancipation of all people, for us to be who we are and embrace who we are, to celebrate culture and to celebrate our differences as well as our commonalities.”
Juneteenth celebrates the day slaves in Texas were informed of their freedom. The United States Capitol Historical Society states that on June 19th, 1865, more than a quarter million slaves in Galveston, Texas received news of their emancipation from Union Army General, Gordon Granger.
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act at the White House in 2021. It is observed on June 19th.
Wilson says Juneteenth should be seen as a celebration of freedom.
“We tend to celebrate the Fourth of July as the celebration of freedom, but Juneteenth is the celebration of freedom for all people,” Wilson says. “For many years, not all Americans were free. And so, Juneteenth is the celebration of the freedom for all Americans.”
Click HERE for more on the Juneteenth celebration.
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