Juneteenth 2024 Taking Shape for Hempstead County, Arkansas

Visibility Outreach Touch Engage (VOTE South Arkansas), the Hempstead County Juneteenth Celebration organizer, reminds you to save the date for the third annual Juneteenth 2024 festivities Friday, June 14-Sunday, June 16. The annual theme is Black Resistance: Celebration of Resilience, History & Liberation, reflecting the Association For The Study of African American Life And History® definition of Black resistance as strategies where Black Americans can mobilize resources, human and material, to establish safe spaces where Black life can be sustained, fortified, and respected. Persons and organizations interested in joining the parade or vending can register at https://forms.gle/h2pr2wQieWG37rfp9.

For 2024, Black History centers on African Americans and the Arts. Sylvia C Brown, VOTE SoAR founder, commented, “Our art—visual, musical, and written—has been our most powerful form of expression, preservation, and, sometimes, protest. I’m proud to be a part of the new generation bringing back this celebration to Hempstead County since the two-year federal recognition.”

On Friday, June 14, at Downtown Hope Pocket Park, VOTE SoAR is adding new Juneteenth 2024 activities–an African attire fashion show organized by Princess Nikita African Attire “Ibile” and a block party with a film screening.

On Saturday, June 15, Hempstead County’s Juneteenth will include the two-mile parade route from the historic Henry C. Yerger Museum to the Northside Park. Once onsite at Northside, participants will hear inspirational speeches from community griot Kattie Flenory and recognition of the honor and the joy found when lifting up African and Black American cultural heritage.

By offering a new narrative Black American culture flourishes—even when societal pressures attempt to decimate it. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Day of Jubilee, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended, and slavery was abolished. This announcement came over two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863.

Get more information at the Facebook page @votesoar, text the group at 870-826-8774 or email [email protected] with “JUNETEENTH 2024” in the subject.

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VOTE SoAR is Visibility Outreach Touch Engage, a nonprofit community collective finding joy in civic engagement, community building and sharing power. Following the recommendations from the Defining Civic Health project, VOTE SoAR is building social connectedness between neighbors, community based organizations, and civic institutions through community events, peer to peer support, and trusted messengers. VOTE SoAR is a sponsored project of Southern Vision Alliance EIN: 61-1639641.
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