Boston celebrated Juneteenth on Sunday with a parade by Roxbury, because the neighborhood commemorated the day when enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, lastly discovered of their freedom greater than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
This 12 months marks the second 12 months that Juneteenth is being noticed as a federal vacation.
“While we recognize that our fight for equity and justice continues today, on this day, we celebrate the Black family, our culture, our melanin, our resilience, our brilliance and our joy,” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley stated on the House flooring. “We affirm our humanity. We are greater than hashtags, sobering statistics, deficits, disparities and gaps.
“We are more than our labor, the resistance and justice-seekers,” she added. “From the heart of Texas to kitchen tables in Roxbury, we celebrate the dedicated coalition of Black folks who organized to make this celebration a federal holiday. Black lives matter. Black healing matters. Black joy matters.”
On Sunday, a Juneteenth parade wound from the Boys & Girls Club of Roxbury to the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists.
“Juneteenth is a reminder of America’s original sin of slavery — a day to reflect on our nation’s shared, painful history, as well as the work we still have to do in order to make equality and justice a reality for all,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey tweeted. “It is a reminder that the struggle for racial justice in this country has too-often been delayed and unfulfilled, and that the true story of this nation has been hidden and diminished as we fail to reckon with our past head-on.”
“We must continue, on this Juneteenth and every day, to recommit ourselves and our agenda to the fight for justice in all its forms, and to the movement for Black liberation,” Markey wrote.
Gov. Charlie Baker signed laws in July 2020 declaring “Juneteenth Independence Day” as a state vacation, and the federal authorities deemed Juneteenth a nationwide vacation final June.
Because Juneteenth fell on a Sunday this 12 months, authorities buildings will probably be closed Monday. Also, mail won’t be delivered on Monday, and most banks will probably be closed. Most grocery shops and eating places will probably be open on Monday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”