Juneteenth has long been recognized as an important day among many Oak Parkers, and the Village Board made it official in 2020 when it voted unanimously to support a proclamation to formally observe the holiday every June 19.
Juneteenth has since been recognized as both a state and federal holiday.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when a U.S. Army general read orders in Galveston, Texas that all previously enslaved people were free.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier, and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent.
Through the years since, Juneteenth has offered an opportunity celebrate freedom and equal rights in the United States.
Learn more about Juneteenth in this 2003 segment from VOP-TV in which Community Relations Director Cedric Melton provides background about the holiday: