The City of Santa Fe commemorated Juneteenth on Tuesday with a ceremony at the Southside Library.
Mayor Alan Webber read a proclamation that was also presented Sunday during the festival at the Plaza.
New Mexico Black Chamber of Commerce President Karla Causey and Business Consultant and Albuquerque City Council candidate Nichole Rogers spoke about available programs to help African-Americans in the state start their own business.
Author and Journalist Darryl Lorenzo Wellington addressed the crowd. He is also the former Poet Laureate of Santa Fe.
He says Juneteenth is more than a celebration of the end of slavery.
“The celebratory part isn’t a sign of frivolity, it’s a sign of its egalitarianism,” he said. “It’s a celebration for everyone to recommit to justice and integrity and the end of racism and fairness for everyone. That is what it is a celebration for, you aren’t stuffing your mouth just for the sake of it. If you’re hungry you’re completely fulfilling the purpose of Juneteenth.”
It was June 19th, 1865 when federal orders were read by Union Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas informing enslaved people they were free more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
It’s believed to be the last place in the south where blacks learned of the end of slavery. The newly freed men and women of Galveston had a celebration over the news and then continued to hold a commemoration every year on June 19th to honor the day.
Juneteenth became an official state holiday in New Mexico in 2006. President Biden signed legislation making it a federal holiday in 2021.
