Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a historical event that commemorates June 19, 1865, the date in history when, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, and read aloud the order freeing the quarter of a million slaves residing in the state.
Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth)
The first major Juneteenth festival in Johnson County was held on June 26, 2011, at Mercer Park. The event was hosted by Club Kazi, a group founded by LaTasha DeLoach in 2007 and consisted of members who had a background in social work. Members of Club Kazi, whose name means “to work” in Swahili, brought resources to foster children through partnership with local social-service providers. Though the club ran workshops like the 2010 Save Our Children Conference, the 2011 Juneteenth celebration marked the group’s first free public gathering. Since then the event has grown and is now in its tenth year.
Thank you to the members of Club Kazi for starting this annual commemoration! We appreciate all of your efforts and laying the foundation for this event to grow and bring so many people together. (https://www.facebook.com/jciajuneteenth/)