Mon 6/19
With an explosion of Juneteenth festivals across the region since it became an official national holiday in 2021, most cities and organizations held theirs over the weekend for convenience since the actual day fell on a Monday.
That didn’t stop the African-American Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park from celebrating a festival with special meaning to them on that day. Hundreds of people flocked to the garden to enjoy food, music, vendors, crafts, speeches, kids’ games and even a brief reenactment of the day’s origin — when the last slaves in Texas were finally informed of their freedom two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Six children were recruited from the audience play such roles as Abraham Lincoln and General Gordon Granger who led the Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.
In addition, a historical marker was unveiled, making the garden an official stop on the Cleveland Civil Rights Trail.
View the PHOTOSTREAM here.
