By Marlene Dolla
Several Virginia localities are gearing up to celebrate Juneteenth this month to commemorate the end of legal slavery in the United States.
While the official holiday is on June 19th, Richmond’s ‘Cultural Ambassador’, the Elegba Folklore Society, will host its annual Juneteenth event at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture at 428 N Arthur Ashe Blvd. This year’s event will feature the Black Book Expo with a vast display of literature featuring topics including Black history, social justice, science, health, African Diasporic culture, African spirituality, personal development, novels and children’s books. Scheduled events begin on Friday, June 7, from 5-9 p.m., and again on Saturday, June 8, from 2-7 p.m.
Henrico County has planned its annual “family fun” event at Dorey Park, on June 15, beginning at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, The Hanover County NAACP has planned its annual Juneteenth celebration on June 22, at Randolph Macon College, in Ashland, beginning at noon. Henrico and Hanover events are free and will feature family-friendly films, music, performances, dances, and vendors, including food trucks.
“Henrico County’s Juneteenth Celebration has been a date to circle on the calendar since the event’s inception four years ago,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone E. Nelson, of the Varina District. “I look forward to seeing our community come together, once again, to celebrate and reflect on the day when the freedoms on which our nation was founded were extended to all Americans.”
Patricia Hunter-Jordan, president of the Hanover County NAACP, said its ‘education team’ will share information about the Richmond Slave Trail during its Juneteenth celebration event.
According to Virginia Tourism, the Richmond Slave Trail is a walking trail that chronicles the history of the slave trade, which imported people from Africa to Virginia until 1775, and then sent them away from Virginia, especially from Richmond to other locations in the Americas until 1865. The slave trail begins at Manchester Docks, a major port in the massive downriver slave trade that made Richmond the largest source of enslaved people on the east coast of America from 1830 to 1860. The trail then follows a route through the slave markets of Richmond, beside the Reconciliation Statue commemorating the international triangular slave trade, past Lumpkin’s Slave Jail and the Negro Burial Ground to First African Baptist Church, a center of Black American life in pre-Civil War Richmond.
“We will [also] have someone onsite to help explain the new reading system in Hanover Schools, voter registration will be onsite as well as information on restoration of voting rights with our PAC team, our health team will be on-site working with the Chickahominy Health District to share information,” she said.
Also known as “Emancipation Day” or “Day of Freedom”, Juneteenth honors the events of June 19, 1865, when those enslaved in Galveston, Texas learned they were free when General Gordon Granger arrived with 2,000 Union troops and issued General Order No. 3, proclaiming the end of slavery in Texas. Virginia declared Juneteenth a state holiday in 2020 and in 2021, President Joe Biden signed an act declaring it a federal holiday. Juneteenth is now considered the United States second Independence Day.
