Juneteenth brings fun and unity to Green Bay

GREEN BAY, WI—(WGBW)—Despite cooler temperatures and the threat of rain, the 6th Annual Juneteenth Celebration in Joannes Park in Green Bay Saturday brought community members out for entertainment, 3 on 3 basketball, food, vendors and unity.

This year’s theme for Juneteenth is “From Freedom to Flourishing.” Charles Caston is the Community Partner Navigator for We All Rise African American Resource Center in Green Bay, which sponsors, organizes, and hosts the celebration every year. Caston said that Juneteenth is a celebration of history which needs to be acknowledged as the African-American community to looks forward.

Door County will celebrate its first ever Juneteenth on Saturday, June 21st at Martin Park in Sturgeon Bay.

Juneteenth commemorates the delayed freedom of enslaved African Americans in 1865. It was on June 19th, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 that slaves in Galveston, Texas heard from a Union General that they were freed. Many in the African-American community consider Juneteenth to be their “Independence Day.” The Biden Administration declared it a federal holiday in 2021.