Gainesville hosts 5th annual Journey to Juneteenth events
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The City of Gainesville, in partnership with the community, invites all neighbors to the fifth annual Journey to Juneteenth: Florida Emancipation to National Celebration, a month-long series of events honoring emancipation and Black history.
The celebration launches at a flag-raising ceremony with a proclamation recognizing Florida’s actual emancipation date – May 20, 1865 – when enslaved Africans in Tallahassee first received word of their freedom, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
When: 10-11 a.m. on Tuesday, 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.
Additional events include:
- Florida Emancipation Celebration, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., May 24 at the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, free.
- “Silver Linings” Community Day, Noon-4 p.m. Sat., May 31 at the Harn Museum of Art, free.
- GNV Film Festival, 6-10 p.m. Sat., June 7, free: “When the Music Was Cheap and Darn Near Free” (6 p.m. at the Hippodrome Cinema); “Bridging Troubled Waters: The Life of Coach Jessie Heard: Lincoln High and Buchholz High School” (6:30 p.m. at the Hippodrome Cinema); Black Panther (8 p.m. at Bo Diddley Plaza).
- Honoring the Past, Living in the Present, Building for the Future, Noon-8 p.m. Wed., June 18 at the Santa Fe College Blount Center, free.
- Juneteenth Breakfast and Black Music Month Celebration, 7:30-9 a.m. Thurs., June 19 at the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, ticketed event ($35).
- “An Evening with Avery*Sunshine” Juneteenth Concert, 6-9 p.m. Thurs., June 19 at Bo Diddley Plaza, free.
- Storytime at Depot Park, 10:30-11 a.m. Fri., June 20 at Depot Park, free.
- Freedom Fest 2025, 3-9 p.m. Sat., June 21 at Bo Diddley Plaza, free.
- Tha Cookout: A Juneteenth & Fatherhood Celebration, Noon-6 p.m. Sun., June 22 (Location TBD).
Sponsoring this year’s event are the City of Gainesville and the Visionaires Club. Additional details about 2025 Journey to Juneteenth events can be found online.
I’m glad to see Black Panther representing for Juneteenth. Wakanda is a nice fictionalization of how society could have been…
The City who keeps people in chains celebrates the breaking of chains.
How’s that for hypocrisy?
Modern events aside, keeping people in chains was what General Gaines was famous for. Still surprised that the woked among us tolerate the name Gainesville, unless they realize that changing all the Gainesville signage and letterheads will put a major dent in the size of their city checks.
They’re still in chains, that’s why.
I can hardly wait. I bet they’re not ‘celebrating’ this in South Africa.
City of Gainesville (the taxpayers) are providing the funding and venues for this celebration in which all are welcome, and the Visionaires Club is providing the natural gas, led by the same person who wants her name on Citizens Field.
Sponsored by the Democratic Party: the same party that started the Civil War to preserve slavery, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, founded the KKK, fought Reconstruction, fought to keep blacks out of Congress, implemented Jim Crow, fought the Civil Rights Amendments, and then intentionally destroyed the black middle class with the permanent welfare cycle.
Let’s see how those Gainesville Democrats like Harvey Ward and Bryan Eastman are doing today: importing masses of violent out-of-state homeless drug addicts to unleash on black communities, fighting to raise the utility rates for black residents, giving the tax dollars of the black working class away to California-based con artists like Block by Block instead of fixing roads or hiring more police.
Looks like nothing has changed.
Dad, putting aside the fact that neither major party is still what it was in the past – and if you don’t know that you are too ignorant to be posting on national issues – but much of you recounting of history is wrong. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was only opposed by southern politicians from both parties with democrats overwhelmingly voting for it in the House and Senate and it was pushed through both by the southern democrat Lyndon Johnson. The intent of the War on Poverty was to raise the standard of living for the poor of all races, and while it did not end poverty it substantially achieved that and the stats bear that out.
By the way, the head of the county GOP is also a John Birch Society national officer and that group blames Lincoln for the Civil War. Also, blacks loyally voted Republican until FDR when their abandonment by that party in favor of business and wealthy interests turned their vote. They not only have voted loyally for Democrats since then – they’re not fools – but as a result many Democratic politicians across the nation are black which means they have real influence in the party. Obama was black of course and Biden would not have been the nominee in 2020 if not for black democratic primary voters. They loyally voted for Harris in 2024 (including men at 78%) and we in the party owe them, we know that, welcome them, and so their interests are well represented in it.
As Kevin McCarthy, ex-GOP House Majority Leader, said a year or so ago:
“Look over at the Democrats and they stand up, they look like America. We stand up, we look like the most restrictive country club in America. ”
CR Act of 1964 voting in Congress:
Senate version:[2]
Democratic Party: 46–21 (69–31%)
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)
Senate version, voted on by the House:[3]
Democratic Party: 153–91 (63–37%)
Republican Party: 136–35 (80–20%)
By Region:
House of Representatives:[3]
Northern: 281–32 (90–10%)
Southern: 8–94 (8–92%)
Senate:[2]
Northern: 72–6 (92–8%)
Southern: 1–21 (5–95%)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964#:~:text=The%20Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of,42:%20Public%20Health%20and%20Welfare
It’s called conditioning for dependency.
History is out, just ask Pelosi, Schumer, and rest of the Dem party leadership! Why? They are all, “Looking forward!” They don’t want to talk history, or Biden’s mush brain cover up and the destruction of the USA for the past four years!
Biden became the Dem candidate because the real Democratic Party Controllers knew they could control him in his “sensitive condition!” What did FJB say? Oh right, “If you don’t vote for me, you aren’t black.” Oh crap, Oblama made nearly the exact same statement while out (grudgingly) stumping for Biden’s VP! Blacks are not stupid, nor are Latinos, Asian, etc! The DNC took them for granted, made promise after promise, election after election, and they got the same thing time after time once the election was over: the shaft!
Dems are moving forward! Yep, they want to keep all the illegal immigrants (criminals and all), they don’t want inflation to come down, reduction to trade deficits (all our trading partners know is the US has been their patsy for years: we provide the world’s defense capability and they rob our people with their unchallenged tariffs).
Not a fan of Birch unless it is a tree, but at least they aren’t out singing anti DOGE songs on the Capital steps and breaking into Federal Detainment Facilities trying to visit people here in the US illegally! I would love to see the day when Peolosi, Schumer, and the Mainstream media are put to task and punished for their Biden mush brain coverup!
Dems had a chance in 2020 and 2024 to pick someone moderate, but they did not! They won’t pick a US first candidate in 2028 either, just like their midterm candidates are all going to be left leaning nut jobs!
Schumer, your post is wrong about almost everything, but clearly you’ve bought the MAGA version of reality regardless of the facts, among which are that Biden was the most centrist candidate in the Democratic field in 2020 and he easily won the nomination (party leader power in back rooms doesn’t exist anymore or Trump never would have been nominated by the GOP), according to presidential historians who ranked Biden as our 14th best president (Trump 1 as our worst) he accomplished more legislatively than any president since LBJ and he steered us through a world wide pandemic with the lowest inflation rate of all developed nations, avoided the predicted sure thing recession, and handed over to Trump – as Obama did in 2017 – a sound growing economy. By the way, unlike Trump who blocked Biden’s team from the early access which is now SOP for incoming administration, and despite Trump’s previous cowardice and selfish rude behavior – see Biden inauguration, etc – Biden opened that access in the name of national unity and traditional bi-partisanship in our traditional peaceful transition, a hall mark of our lasting self governance.
No, other countries in general have not been abusing us in trade anymore than we do them on certain local and small time issues like milk in Canada or we their lumber. That’s more BS from the lying sack of …. who paints everything as terrible except his own glorious a… Crime has been down, not up, the economy was described by the centrist and respected The Economist as “the envy of the world” in the fall, we are not victims of our closets allies in trade, immigrants perform less crimes than native born Americans and are a needed part of our present economy since native Americans are not producing enough kids, immigration “reform” – long blocked by the hypocritical GOP which likes the issue more than a solution – should include, along with reinforcing border security, simplified and clear paths for legal immigration, and such a bill was killed by Trump last year as Boehner did in 2013.
That you apparently applaud DOGE says a lot, but mainly you don’t know what’s going on. Did you – or do you – think that Musk is an expert on government efficiency and should be able to single handedly wipe out programs created and approved by Congress over decades. Putting aside that very serious constitutional issue being dodged – not DOGED – by your party who controls Congress now, do you seriously think they have cut enough spending, and without blowback of more spending to repair the damage as many now predict when the conservative WSJ has been reporting on DOGE lies, exaggerations, and the futility of the effort compared to the red ink – Trump asked for a permanent end to debt ceilings – which the rich guy tax cuts will produce? This is not speculation as no one except maybe Mike Johnson’s mother thinks they will be revenue neutral.
Anyway, you get the picture …………. or not, but that’s your fault. Trump is a lying self interested sack of …. who is not a financial wizard, up on tariffs and the intricacies of the world economy. We – well you – elected him at all our peril. Hold on!
Because you said so! LMAO!
Your comments are always the same, you must cut and paste from years of supporting the party that wants to destroy America. Joe, Chuck, Nancy, and George’s Party, the Communist Party of America (formerly the DNC).
When forced to choose, I’ll put my vote for a party whose platform isn’t for replacing Americans with Illegal Immigrants and Communist rule!
I posted facts. You can’t handle them.
PS In the decade following the 1964 introduction of the war on poverty, poverty rates in the U.S. dropped to their lowest level since comprehensive records began in 1958: from 17.3% in the year the Economic Opportunity Act was implemented to 11.1% in 1973. This was in the decade when the VN war was an economic drag on the country.
Vietnam employed and killed 50,000+ poor citizens. Intentional, LBJ fan?
The issue was not LBJ but whether Democrats supported the CR Act of 1964. They did.
Was that when LBJ suggested to minority women they’d get more money from the government if they raised their children without a husband/father?
Linked quote please, you voted.
We have “Juneteenth” we have MLK day, we have black history month, we have Hispanic history month. When will be able to celebrate the Caucasian race that has contributed so much to society?
🤫 You’re likely to offend some wokeass person.
Well dear me, how will I ever cope with offending “some woke person?” s/
Steely – hey when are you going to tell us about yourself and how you came to name yourself after a sex aide from a gay novel – do you think the freeing of the slaves is not cause for all Americans to celebrate. Given the general ignorance around this board, I think you all especially need to learn about history, minority and majority!
When are you going to tell us about yourself? I named myself after the band Steely Dan, not the sex toy they named themselves after. Yes I do think the freeing of slaves is cause for celebration, no human being should ever be owned.
I am not ignorant of history, I love and study history. I try hard to be objective and that is something I think you should consider doing. Not all conservatives are wrong and not all liberals are right.
I answered your previous enquiry and you still don’t say much about yourself. Good to know how you came up with the nom de plume, but you might consider a new one given it’s history.
Glad we agree on celebrating the freeing of slaves but why you chose to attack that practice and love to quote bogus stats – no, 72% of crimes are not committed by blacks – in efforts to disparage the race that was enslaved here and think it appropriate to note the race of black arrestees but not whites, as if law abiding members of one – most of them by far – need to answer for the criminals while ours (whites) don’t have that obligation, is a nystery best explained as racist.
Again, I am an old builder still doing it who has been making payroll – literally – for almost 50 years now. I came to Gainesville when it was a completely Jim Crow town where blacks could not eat at restaurants, stay at hotels, or go to anything but the substandard schools provided for them alone. So I know what “Make America Great Again” means and it wasn’t great. Today is not perfect, “great” compared to that crap.
In 2022, the murder rate among blacks is 653% higher than the murder rate for whites. The murder rate for Hispanics is 65% higher than for whites. Nor are those numbers that much of an outlier. From 1990 through 2022, the black murder rate average 569% higher than whites, and the number for Hispanics was 57% higher.
https://crimeresearch.org/2023/11/violent-crime-rates-by-race/
Those are just facts.
Different facts from your 72% of crimes are by blacks. And what does your keeping score have to do with a Juneteenth celebration or your selective finger pointing. Tell us how many crimes are committed proportionally by men, and does that make you automatically suspect “Dan”?
Why do Dems need so many entire months to brainwash their voters about Black history (twice), LGBQT Pride, Feminist Women, Indigenous peoples, etc?
If you keep it up, they’ll soon realize they were better off back then.
If you really think ” they were better off back then”, you are too dumb to fish.
All the Dem’s inclusive holidays and months buys votes!
Soon, they’ll declare a Cartel Tax Free Day for Fentanyl!
Their goal is to wipe out the American citizens through more and more Fentanyl related deaths, and of course the open borders that allowed free flow of drugs and illegals into America! That is why the FJB open border was so important to his handlers (Nancy, Chuck, George, and Co.)
Unlike Trump, Biden followed the law on asylum and promoted the comprehensive immigration law in Congress that border agents supported but which addressed both security and processing. It was primarily written by the conservative senator from Oklahoma and by most Republicans until Trump told them to kill it to preserve a campaign issue. They killed it.
That’s a fact.
Not the 1st time the GOP has killed a comprehensive immigration bill – security plus a clear path and manageable path to citizenship (or not) – so they could crow about the problems. In 2013, a bill with some support among both parties passed the Senate only to be kept from a vote on the House floor by Speaker Boehner under the Hastert Rule – only bills supported by most Republicans will make it to the floor. It would have easily passed there if it it had gotten to a House vote.
Republicans have avoided dealing with the border realistically while nurturing the irrational hatred of foreigners which they have done for a century now.