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The Kissimmee Juneteenth Festival drew hundreds to the Kissimmee Lakefront Park last Saturday, June 19. PHOTO COURTESY OF ALICIA FUNDERBURK
Juneteenth became the 12th federal holiday last week after winning support from Congress and President Joe Biden.
A combination of the words June and 19th, Juneteenth commemorates the liberation of enslaved people in the U.S. It was first celebrated on June 19, 1865, in Texas a few months after the Civil War ended and the Emancipation Proclamation could be fully enacted to free people held as prisoners in servitude.
Although President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, it could not be enforced in many places until after the war ended. Two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
Established through the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, it’s the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first recognized by the U.S. government.
Juneteenth already is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington and now Illinois, and hundreds of companies give workers a day off for Juneteenth.
What’s more, African-Americans have long celebrated the end of the enslavement of their ancestors.
The City of Kissimmee and the Osceola County branch of the NAACP on Saturday hosted a festival at Kissimmee Lakefront Park that drew hundreds of residents and supporters.
There was live music from the Cece Teneal Band, Experience Christian Center Gospel and DJ Keem Dawg. The event also included vendors and informational tents from local government agencies, including local voter registrations.
