Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War.
While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. Still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop parts of that history from being taught in public schools.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the woman known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal Lee, led her annual Walk for Freedom. The 96-year-old former teacher and activist is largely credited for rallying others behind a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. This year, Lee became only the second Black person to have her portrait hung in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol.
“In order to have justice we must work for peace. And in order to have peace we must work for justice,” John Thorne, executive director of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, said to the congregation at Gesu Catholic Church while standing before paintings of a Black Jesus and Mary.“The struggle’s still not over with. There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.
“It is the independence of a people that were forced to endure oppression and discrimination based on the color of their skin,” Jones said.
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Americans mark Juneteenth with parties, events, quiet reflection on end of slavery after Civil WarAmericans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings
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Americans mark Juneteenth with parties, events, quiet reflection on end of slavery after Civil WarAmericans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings
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