2022 Juneteenth Freedom Celebration

It was an honor joining the host of other vendors who came together to celebrate and commemorate the Juneteenth holiday at the Annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration held in Lexington, NC on Saturday, June 18th. Celebrating Juneteenth, which is a merging of June and nineteenth, is important for the Johnny Leroy Dawkins Jr Scholarship Fund because it's historical events such as this that makes it possible for us to exist today. When the Union Army, General Gordon Granger, announced on June 19, 1865 the emancipation of the enslaved African Americans in Texas it was the birth of new life! This announcement came over two years after President Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation. The enslaved people in Texas were not aware of their freedom until 1865 and even after learning of their freedom they still had so many mountains to climb and time that passed before they could really feel the impacts of that freedom. Still today black, African America, and people of color in America have mountains to climb in order to take hold of the freedom our ancestors fought so hard for. But we can now officially celebrate with national recognition that WE ARE FREE!