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It’s Freedom Day Celebrate Juneteenth!!!

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Today is Juneteenth – a day celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.  Here’s what you need to know about the nation’s most recent federal holiday. Juneteenth marks the day that Union soldiers arrived to free slaves in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1965 – two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and more than two months after the end of the Civil War.  Juneteenth celebrations go as far back as 1866, and began to grow in popularity in the 1930’s.  Thanks to the efforts of 96-year-old Opal Lee’s of Fort Worth it was declared a federal holiday by Joe Biden. In 2021  Opal Lee was described by Biden as the “grandmother of the movement” to help make Juneteenth a nationally recognized holiday. In 2016, 89-year-old Lee, a former teacher and lifelong activist, walked from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to the nation’s capital in an effort to get Juneteenth named a national holiday. Every year  on June 19th Ms Opal Lee would walk 2 1/2 miles to mark the time that passed between President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and when the news arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. Again this year Lee is leading the  Juneteenth celebration in Fort Worth with a ceremony and parade along with thousands of residents, supporters and visitors. Its is becoming a national tradition with gatherings, cookouts, or church services. It’s a time for celebrating of freedom and love.


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