Juneteenth Celebration @ Loyal Heights Community Center – June 21
Stop by the Sustainable Ballard table at Loyal Heights Juneteenth Celebration. We’ll have reading lists for adults and kids, bubbles and hula hoops.
Celebrate Juneteenth in conjunction with the last day of school with LHCC. Come and join Loyal Heights neighbors as we learn more about this important holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. Kids can join a Juneteenth themed craft project and decorate their bikes for a bike parade or participate in a Teen 3-Point B-ball Contest.
Enjoy popcorn and popsicles too!
June 21st, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Loyal Heights Community Center
2101 NW 77th St
ABOUT JUNETEENTH:
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth traces its origins back to Galveston, Texas where on June 19, 1865 Union soldiers, led by Major Gen. Gordon Granger landed in the city with news that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were now free.
The announcement came two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863 that freed slaves in Confederate states. However, since that proclamation was made during the Civil War, it was ignored by Confederate states even though many slaves claimed their freedom based on the Proclamation and over 200,000 joined the union army.
It wasn’t until the end of the war that Executive Order No. 3 was enforced across the South, Texas was the last Confederate state to get the news.
General Order No. 3 contained the news of the Emancipation Proclamation to the residents of Texas and freed all remaining enslaved people in the state. It was issued by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865 at Ashton Villa upon arriving at Galveston, Texas, over a month after the formal end of the American Civil War and two years after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The announcement of the order is the central event commemorated by the holiday of Juneteenth, which celebrates the abolition of slavery.