“Juneteenth celebrations waned for several decades. It wasn’t because people no longer wanted to celebrate freedom — but, as Slate so eloquently put it, ‘it’s difficult to celebrate freedom when your life is defined by oppression on all sides.’ Juneteenth celebrations waned during the era of Jim Crow laws until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, when the Poor People’s March planned by Martin Luther King Jr. was purposely scheduled to coincide with the date. The march brought Juneteenth back to the forefront, and when march participants took the celebrations back to their home states, the holiday was reborn.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a celebration on Monday, June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

Roundtable discussions of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed begin today with a meeting at 1 p.m. in the R.H. Stephens Room (can also attend via Zoom with meeting ID: 86326730510).

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

A Juneteenth celebration will be held June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in A. Lincoln Commons.

Learn more about LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities.

Historical spotlight

“There were limited options for celebrating. When freed people tried to celebrate the first anniversary of the announcement a year later, they faced a problem: Segregation laws were expanding rapidly, so there were no public places or parks they were permitted to use. In the 1870s, former enslaved people pooled together $800 and purchased 10 acres of land, which they deemed ‘Emancipation Park.’ Until the 1950s, it was the only public park and swimming pool in the Houston area that was open to African Americans.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

“Freedom created other problems. Despite the announcement, Texas slave owners weren’t too eager to part with what they felt was their property. When freed people tried to leave, many of them were beaten, lynched or murdered. ‘They would catch [freed slaves] swimming across [the] Sabine River and shoot them,’ a former enslaved person named Susan Merritt recalled.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

“Not all enslaved people were freed instantly. Texas is a large state, and General Granger’s order (and the troops needed to enforce it) was slow to spread. According to historian James Smallwood, many enslavers deliberately suppressed the information until after the harvest, and some beyond that. In July 1867 there were two separate reports of enslaved people being freed, and one report of a Texas horse thief named Alex Simpson, whose enslaved people were only freed after his hanging in 1868.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

“The Scatter” — “Most freedpeople weren’t terribly interested in staying with the people who had enslaved them, even if pay was involved. In fact, some were leaving before Granger had finished making the announcement. What followed became known as ‘the scatter,’ when droves of former enslaved people left the state to find family members or more welcoming accommodations in northern regions.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

“The Juneteenth announcement actually urged freedmen and freedwomen to stay with their former owners. General Order No. 3, as read by General Granger, said: ‘The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.'” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

“There are many theories as to why the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t enforced in Texas. News traveled slowly back in those days — it took Confederate soldiers in western Texas more than two months to hear that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. Still, some have struggled to explain the 30-month gap between Lincoln’s proclamation and the enslaved people’s freedom, leading to speculation that some Texans suppressed the announcement. Other theories include that the original messenger was murdered to prevent the information from being relayed or that the federal government purposely delayed the announcement to Texas to get one more cotton harvest out of the enslaved workers. But the real reason is probably that Lincoln’s proclamation simply wasn’t enforceable in the rebel states before the end of the war.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more at LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities, including a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed and a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons. Get more details.

June 17-19 is 217 Black Restaurant Weekend. Now in its third year, the event aims to counter economic disparity within black-owned businesses with fun and interactive solutions that engage, excite and ignite a deeper understanding and appreciation of Springfield’s food culture. LLCC is sponsoring Jerk Shop Go, located in downtown Springfield.

Enslaved people had already been emancipated; they just didn’t know it. “The June 19 announcement [about the end of slavery] came more than two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. So technically, from the Union’s perspective, the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were already free — but none of them were aware of it, and no one was in a rush to inform them.” (Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth)

Learn more by visiting the LLCC Juneteenth Guide at https://library.llcc.edu/juneteenth.

LLCC’s upcoming Juneteenth activities include a celebration on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons and a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Get more details.

Historical spotlight

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862, declaring that all slaves in states in rebellion against the Union would be forever free as of Jan. 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation freed 3.1 million slaves in 11 Confederate states but didn’t apply to border slave states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri.

The June 19 announcement about the end of slavery came later in 1865. Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day and Liberation Day.

LLCC hosting Juneteenth celebration

LLCC is celebrating Juneteenth on June 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with various events in A. Lincoln Commons on the LLCC-Springfield campus. This year’s observance is themed “Know Your History” and aims to increase knowledge about Juneteenth 1865.

The event is open to the public and will feature a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, a Juneteenth display, free haircuts provided by the University of Spa and Cosmetology Arts, music provided by D.J. Yinka and food from Gertrude’s Taste of Heaven by Lisa Johnson.

The college is also hosting a book read of “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Roundtable discussions will be held via Zoom on June 15, 22 and 29 at 1 p.m.

Leading up to the Juneteenth celebration, look for more historical spotlights in LincIn as well as on the Lincoln Landing app and on LLCC’s Facebook page.