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June 15, 2006
Juneteenth
The Ann Arbor NAACP will be sponsoring the 12th annual Juneteenth celebration this Saturday, June 17th at Wheeler Park in Ann Arbor from noon to 5:00pm.
The celebration will include music, games, food and fun. For more information call the NAACP at 769-5976.
The celebration of Juneteenth started 141 years ago in Gaveston, TX. It was there on June 19th, 1865 that a Union Army General rode into town and announced to the people of Galveston that the Civil War had ended in April of that year and that slavery was abolished. This marked the freedom of the last 250,000 slaves in this country. This, despite the fact that the Emancipation Proclaimation had been signed by Abraham Lincoln two and a half years earlier.
See the Juneteenth.com web site for more information and for an online look at the dramatic artwork of Tom Feeling's book The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo, which is also available in the University of Michigan Library Juvenile Collection on Hatcher's third floor, ND 237 .F27 A25 1995
Posted by swortman at June 15, 2006 08:14 AM