In style, South Florida today celebrated the national holiday “Juneteenth” that commemorates and remembers the end of slavery in the United States.
Yvette Colbourne, commissioner of Miramar, assured that “we are celebrating African-American culture, because this celebration today is because the last people were notified that there were no slaves in the US and that is something sentimental for them and all of us.”
For others like Josette Tyne this celebration of “today is that we are safe from the past and free…I love sharing our culture and letting everyone know about this celebration”.
And it is that although in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, some 250,000 slaves learned of their freedom after the Union general, Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and announced that the president had issued a proclamation that released them, from there the federal holiday, approved in 2021 by President Joe Biden, is commemorated.
The celebrations took place from Miramar to different parks in Overtown, where the party was used to raise awareness and promote good nutrition and physical activity in African-American communities.
For Tisa “today is an important day to know history and that today we have rights and freedoms for that historic day of June 19, 1865 … we have a lot of activity today for the whole family, we have artifacts, African-American things to buy, meals we are celebrating African-American culture.
Activists say that today is a date that we should all celebrate regardless of our race.
“Until we all celebrate together until we can all enjoy chasing happiness we are not winning, to win we have to be united regardless of our roots,” says Poly, who celebrates Juneteenth this Monday.
The objective of this celebration in modern times is to raise awareness about the current problems facing the African-American community in the country.
