Hope, Arkansas, May 2023 – Visibility Outreach Touch Engage South Arkansas (VOTE SoAR), the Hempstead County Juneteenth Celebration organizer, reminds you to save the date for the second annual Juneteenth 2023 festivities Friday, June 16-Sunday, June 18. 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.
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.
Sylvia C Brown, VOTE SoAR founder commented, “In 2022, standing on the memories and words of the elders, VOTE SoAR organized the Hempstead County Juneteenth Parade and Fest. Juneteenth is a centuries-long celebration that has been recognized in the Black culture. I’m proud to be a part of the new generation bringing back this celebration to Hempstead County since the two-year federal recognition.”
