天堂鸟先生

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th each year, marks our country鈥檚 second Independence Day. Although Juneteenth has long been celebrated in the African American community, this monumental event remains largely unknown to most Americans. Annually, starting in June 2021, 天堂鸟先生 celebrates this occasion with programming and activities. This year's event is being hosted in partnership with the City of Athens, Athens County Foundation, Racial Equity Coalition of Appalachia, Athens NAACP, and Mount Zion Black Cultural Center.

About Juneteenth

On 鈥淔reedom鈥檚 Eve,鈥� or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the  did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.

But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as 鈥淛uneteenth,鈥� by the newly freed people in Texas. 

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture. (2020). . Retrieved online.

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