Every summer, Americans across the nation celebrate Juneteenth, the annual June 19 holiday that commemorates the official end of slavery in the U.S. On that day in 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation, the document signed two years earlier that freed the nation s enslaved people.
But in Florida, the date of May 20, 1865, might hold even more significance. One month before Granger made it to Galveston, Union Brigadier Gen. Edward M. McCook stopped in Tallahassee to make a similar announcement. Down the street from the state Capitol at the Hagner House (today the Knott House Museum), McCook declared that all Black people were now free citizens of the United States. The news which, before the days of mass media and the invention of the telephone, came as a surprise to many was toasted at a celebratory picnic at Tallahassee s Bull s Pond by those who d been enslaved.
Jacksonville Emancipation Celebration festival to be held Thursday
The celebration will feature local African American food trucks and vendors, live performances from Jacksonville’s best musicians, dancers and more. Author: First Coast News Staff Published: 7:34 AM EDT May 20, 2021 Updated: 7:34 AM EDT May 20, 2021
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The first annual Jacksonville Emancipation Celebration will take place on Thursday.
Jacksonville’s Emancipation Celebration will feature local African American food trucks and vendors, live performances from Jacksonville’s best musicians, dancers and poets, fun activities for the kids, a Community Art Project and a historical display.
Local historical organizations will also lend their expertise to weave educational stories throughout the performances and activities. The festival will begin at 11 a.m. and close out at 8 p.m. at James Weldon Johnson Park.