Juneteenth Freedom Celebration 2024 & the holiday origins

Union County’s second annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration was kicked off in Park-Along-the River on Friday evening June 7, 2024. There was live entertainment, food and fireworks.

Saturday June 8th began with an afternoon parade through downtown New Albany to Park-Along-the River. As the parade dispersed, the park began to fill with families meeting and greeting friends, children playing, and customers lining up to check out the wares of the many food trucks and other vendors on hand for the Juneteenth Celebration.

Lawn chairs and tents were set up all around the shady green park areas along the Tallahatchie River, as folks prepared for the evening of live music to come. It was pretty warm, but most folks didn’t seem to mind. Cool drinks and festival foods were in demand. Every seat had a good view of the Park-Along-the-River stage where J. Kyles, Fantasia, 2 Piece & a Biscuit and the Revolution Band would be providing entertainment throughout the evening.

Juneteenth Origins: Dating back to 1865, the holiday commemorates the day when 250,000 slaves were declared free by the U.S. Army in the state of Texas, during the final days of the Civil War. Celebrations began to occur the next year on June 19, and continued in African American communities year after year. In 1980, Texas became the first to make it a state holiday. Shortly thereafter, other states followed suit, along with organizations and businesses across the nation hosting events and educational opportunities dedicated to commemorating the significance of this day.

The day was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

In fact, though, the last slaves to be freed were in Kentucky. Slavery remained legal there until the passage of the 13th Amendment on Dec. 18, 1865. The enslaved men, women and children of Kentucky were the last to finally gain freedom – over six months after June 19th.