Juneteenth celebrated locally

A local activist shares his views on Juneteenth, the day the last slaves in America learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Year's commemoration feels so much different to so many people.

News channel two's gary liberatore spoke with a local activist about why.

President abraham lincoln's emancipation proclamation went into effect on january 1, 1863....freeing slaves across the country....but it that executive order was ignored by confederate states...until...two and a half years later....when...on june 19th, 1865...federal troops arrived in galveston texas...announcing the end of the civil war and that all those who were enslaved were now free.

Those federal troops remained in texas to enforce the freeing of slaves.

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None tc : 33:53 "so the symbolism of this holiday is equally as important now as it was hundreds of years ago."

Patrick johnson has been an activist in utica...working on race relations in the city for more than a decade.

Tc : 31:41 "we didnt start doing this last week, we didnt start doing this because of the george floyd incident and tragedy, weve been doing this for 15 years."

The name juneteenth...is a combination of "june" and "nineteenth".

It's also known as african american freedom day or emancipation day.

Tc : 33:05 "weve been celebrating juneteenth here in the city of utica and i know the other cities have been doing it too, it has more significance now."

Johnson says these images caught on camera less than a month ago on may 25th, 2020...will forever be remembered for the discrimination that still exists in our country...and for the beginning of what many are hoping is real change... tc : 34:55 "in my lifetime and im a middle-aged black man, ive never seen so many white people on board for justice and fairness around these issues, ive never seen it like that before so thats why juneteenth celebrations have been taking place for many years...but this year's celebration of juneteenth.