Juneteenth celebration scheduled for June 18 in Breckenridge’s Booker T. Washington Park
The 2022 Booker T. Washington School Reunion/Juneteenth Celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 18, at the Booker T. Washington Park in Breckenridge.
Festivities will start at noon with a picnic in the park, which is located on East Power Street between Dunnigan and Stoker avenues.
A fish fry, hosted by Pit Stop BBQ, will take place later in the evening.
The community is invited by the organizers to bring a lawn chair, a side dish or a favorite dessert and join the event for a time of food and fellowship for all.
Last year, a group of local residents hosted a Juneteenth celebration in the park for the first time in many years. A couple of months earlier, the park had been officially renamed Booker T. Washington Park after a group of Breckenridge High School students helped do some renovations there as a part of the Texas Municipal Community Network’s Leadership program they were working on. Their project included proposing the new name to the City Commission and placing a plaque in the park.
Also last year, President Joe Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a new federal holiday. The bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday was led by two Texas legislators, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Democrat U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date that slaves in Texas were finally informed that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which had gone into effect two and a half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in the rebellious southern states, which had seceded from the United States to form the Confederacy.
This year, the federal Juneteenth holiday will be observed on Monday, June 20. Post offices, banks and other businesses and agencies may be closed for the holiday; U.S. Postal Services mail will not be delivered that day.
Cutline, top photo: Food, fun and fellowship were all part of the 2021 Juneteenth celebration in Breckenridge’s Booker T. Washington Park. This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, June 18. (Photo by Rob Durham)
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