Juneteenth, a Recommitment to Freedom.

The City of Lebanon is pleased to invite the full Upper Valley Community to join us in our inaugural Juneteenth celebration on June 19, 2022 from 5-7 pm in Colburn Park, downtown Lebanon. The program will include music and song; a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Steve Wood, a skilled Lincoln portrayer; a brief historic presentation about the pre-war abolitionist movement in Lebanon, as well as about formerly enslaved people, who resided in Lebanon after the war; and a performance by our wonderful UV African-American Theatre Company, JAG Productions. The Soldiers Memorial Building across from the park, built by Civil War veterans in 1890, will be open to the public from 4-8 pm. Hannafords in West Lebanon is donating and serving the traditional Juneteenth red soda and red velvet cake to us all. Many thanks to them and to all those participating in the festivities.

President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into Law on June 17, 2021, making June 19th an official United States Federal Holiday, set aside to remember and to celebrate the freeing of enslaved African-Americans. Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued January 1, 1863, it took more than two years of continued civil war for the institution of slavery to end throughout the self-identified Confederate States. Lee had surrendered the Confederacy to Union forces at Appomattox on April 9, 1865; but it was two months later that the final battle of the war was fought. On June 19, 1865, the victorious Union forces moved into Texas; and on that day, Union Army General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in that state. While legal slavery in the US did not officially end in the border states of Kentucky and Delaware until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865, Juneteenth is rightly recognized as the day in which the hearts, minds, and policies of our entire nation shifted course, turning once again in the direction of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

Please join us on June 19 at 5pm in Lebanon for this very special celebration of freedom!