HomeLocal government4th annual Journey to Juneteenth: A month of celebration

4th annual Journey to Juneteenth: A month of celebration

May 14, 2024

Press release from City of Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In partnership with the community, the City of Gainesville invites all neighbors to the fourth annual Journey to Juneteenth: Florida Emancipation to National Celebration, a month-long series of events.

A flag-raising ceremony and proclamation will officially recognize Florida’s actual emancipation date – May 20, 1865 – the day when enslaved Africans first learned of their freedom in Tallahassee, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

When: 9-10 a.m. on Monday, May 20

Where: City Hall Plaza, 200 E. University Ave.

The ceremony is free and open to the public. Journey to Juneteenth is a month-long program of events through June 19th, the date when communities nationwide commemorate the announcement of freedom reaching Texas in 1865.

Among this year’s many events is the screening of “Class of Her Own,” a newly-released documentary about the late Duval Elementary Teacher Gloria Jean Merriex and her innovative teaching methods. It will be featured at the municipal A. Quinn Jones Museum & Cultural Center during the Juneteenth Film Festival on June 8. 

Additional events include:

Additional details about Journey to Juneteenth events can be found online. Sponsoring this year’s event are Alachua County Public Schools; Children’s Trust of Alachua County; Duke Energy; HCA Florida Healthcare. Community partners include: Alachua County Remembrance Project; Cade Museum; Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center; The Education Equalizer; Episcopal Children’s Services; FAMU National Alumni Association; Florida Museum of Natural History; Gainesville Housing Authority; MA Investment Partners LLC; Nathan Ross, Inc.; New Worlds Reading; Pace Center for Girls, Alachua; Santa Fe Association of Black Faculty and Staff; Santa Fe Teaching Zoo; UF Brain Health Equity and Dementia Prevention Lab; and The Visionaires Club.

  • More festivities will just mean more shootings and deaths here in Gangsville. Normal places like Broward County celebrate Juneteeth from about June 15 to June 19. I don’t think a month-long party has been ‘earned’ by any stretch of the imagination.

  • How about a billboard sign in front of jail with a picture of MLK with caption reading ” And I died for this” as his people enter jail.
    On the opposite side as his people leave the jail, “Now go the right thing”. And all these folks wanting to celebrate June 19th, meet their people to help them.

  • Why don’t we just make this a year round celebration so we can show everyone how much we really care? Rediculous.

  • Why keep reminding people they got free stuff under slavery? Isn’t that counter-intuitive?

  • They just threw everybody they hated into the month of June men gays and now African Americans join the hated club welcome to June

  • Sounds like a good time to have a ‘block party’ capped off with a 21 gun salute?

  • Read the text of the Emancipation Proclamation. It did not emancipate slaves in states under Union control, and in divided states it applied only to counties in rebellion. Moreover, it essentially immediately drafted the emancipated slaves into the Union army.

    From Wikipedia:

    “On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation.[5] After quoting from the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, it stated:
    I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do … order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion, against the United States, the following, to wit: …..”

    Lincoln then listed the ten states still in rebellion, excluding parts of states under Union control, and continued:

    “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free. … [S]uch persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States. … And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

    • The ole Kingsley Plantation. Whitewashed from history books.

      Under the authority of the Spanish government, this plantation was ran by a prominent British merchant until his death. At which time Anna, his African princess widow, took control and continued operations.

      • Yeah, sure dude, “whitewashed from history books”.

        It’s a freaking national park!

        I highly recommend visiting it. You won’t regret it. Beautiful island, interesting place with main house still intact. Near Mayport on the opposite side of the St John’s, just short of Little Talbot Island.

    • Anna ran his plantations while he was still alive. No she was not Florida’s largest enslaver, but what if she was? Does that wash your white man’s conscience, or do you think collective guilt should only apply to blacks? I think you might be in violation of DeSantis new history standards where no one can feel bad about the past.

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