Little Miss Juneteenth Journee Walton, Miss Juneteenth Nevada Aniyah Brown and Miss Jubilee Jaslyn Johnson wave as they make their way into Craig Ranch Regional Park, Friday, June 19, 2020, for a family reunion and BBQ by the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation to commemorate June 19, 1865, the ending of slavery in the United States.
Friday, June 16, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Events are scheduled in the upcoming days across the Las Vegas Valley to celebrate Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Gov. Joe Lombardo this week signed into law Assembly Bill 140 making Nevada one of 25 states to observe Juneteenth on June 19 as a state holiday, which falls on Monday this year.
The City of Henderson, in partnership with the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation of Nevada, is hosting a free three-day festival featuring African American cultural performances, plays, poetry, music and dancing.
The festival will open at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Water Street Plaza with a performance of “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman,” a play starring Leslie McCurdy that recreates the life of historical icon and “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman.
At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the Vegas City Opera will bring Songs of Freedom to the Water Street Plaza. The show will feature Dr. Richard Hodges, an assistant professor and director of voice studies at Western Washington University who is currently touring with the revival of “X: The Life and Times of Malcom X.”
Henderson’s final day of celebrations on Monday will include the Celebration of Live Music, Poetry and Exhibits featuring award-winning performers such as the 2022 United States Youth Poet Laureate Alyssa Gaines, the Woody Woods Quartet with Paul Stubblefield and cello performer Okorie Johnson — also known as OkCello.
Here are some other Juneteenth celebrations happening across Southern Nevada this weekend:
— The 22nd Annual Las Vegas Juneteenth Festival is 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the World Market Center. There will be local food, artists, vendors and music — with the award-winning, Las Vegas-based R&B group, 702, as special guests. Entry is free.
— LGBTQIA+ Center of Southern Nevada of South Maryland Parkway is hosting the “Queer Black Experience of Juneteenth” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at The Center off South Maryland Parkway. They will have music, dancing, food, drinks and a raffle.
— The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and the National Juneteenth Committee from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday will host a day of jazz music and Ms. Juneteenth community awards at the West Las Vegas Library, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd.
— The James I. Gibson Library in Henderson from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday is hosting a Juneteenth poetry reading, where participants can “share stories and celebrate vital community voices in honor of Juneteenth.” The library is at 100 W. Lake Mead Parkway.
— Jubilee Family Celebration: A Juneteenth & Father’s Day Block is 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center at 200 S. 3rd Street. The event will include live performances, music, food and speakers. There will also be arts and crafts, interactive games and live performances for children. General admission is free.
— The F.A.I.T.H Juneteenth Freedom Festival 2023 is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets to spread out on the grass while they watch live shows — like African drummers and praise dancing — and other local performers. There will also be local vendors, entertainment, food, drinks, recovery and wellness resources, a fireworks show and a kid’s zone with arts and crafts. Admission to the event is free.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth marks when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free. That occurred on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers told enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, the news of their freedom.
Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed those enslaved in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Even then, some white people who had profited from their unpaid labor were reluctant to share the news.
Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, to say the war had ended and that the enslaved people were free — more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.
Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment. And the next year, the now-free people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world.
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress.
Juneteenth is a blend of the words June and nineteenth. The holiday has also been called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, second Independence Day and Emancipation Day.
