The Town of West Hartford will hold a Juneteenth celebration on Friday, June 19.

Submitted

On Friday, June 19 at 8:30 a.m., the Town of West Hartford will recognize and celebrate Juneteenth on the Goodman Green in West Hartford Center.

Speakers will include Mayor Shari Cantor as well as Town Councilor Carol Blanks; State Rep. Tammy Exum; Lorna Thomas-Farquharson, vice chair of the West Hartford Board of Education; Roszena Haskins, director of Diversity Enhancement for West Hartford Public Schools; Adrienne Billings-Smith of Concerned Parents of Color of West Hartford (CPCWH); Earl Exum, president of WHAASCO (West Hartford African American Social & Cultural Organization); and Eshe Griffith of Conard High School.

Juneteenth, often referred to as “America’s second Independence Day,” commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved people in Galveston, TX, were informed of their emancipation. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.

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