State offices remained open in Mississippi during the Juneteenth federal holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans, almost two months after officials closed state offices to celebrate the Confederate Memorial Day state holiday on April 24.
Messages of hope, history, freedom and celebration rang throughout Starkville for six days as residents celebrated Juneteenth.
“Teaching lessons about (Juneteenth) offers an abundance of opportunities about what it means to fight for freedom and maintain a sense of self-determination in the face of oppression,” Raphael Rogers writes.
“Texas history is both the story of people who dedicated their lives to the work of advancing freedom and the story of powerful people and forces that stood against it,” Jeffrey Littlejohn and Zachary Montz write.
Juneteenth commemorates the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed.
On June 19, 1865, Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. “There were speeches, sermons and shared meals, mostly held at Black churches, the safest places to have such celebrations,” history professor Kris Manjapra writes. “But the emancipation that took place in Texas that day in 1865 was just the latest in a series of emancipations that had been unfolding since the 1770s.”
MS Votes’ plans for the upcoming Juneteenth celebration in the historic Farish Street district grew out of the organization’s commitment to community engagement in Jackson. Join MFP Live Thursday, June 16, at 6 p.m., on the MFP Facebook page or YouTube channel to learn more about MSVotes’ Juneteenth celebration, as well as the important work that the organization is doing around the state.
Dr. Gilbert Mason Jr. helped bring a discrimination lawsuit in 1964 against Biloxi Separate Municipal School District, which led to the desegregation of Biloxi’s schools. Biloxi Public School District was the first to integrate classrooms in Mississippi. Dr. Mason passed away on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Department of Parks and Recreation Director Ison B. Harris Jr. unsuccessfully pushed for the funding of a fireworks display for the Juneteenth celebration in Jackson.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).