NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Residents, community leaders and guests gathered to celebrate freedom, perseverance and community with a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony in Newport News Monday morning.
“Today we gather not only to raise a flag, but also to tell a story, to share a legacy,” said Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones. “We raised this flag to mark a turning point in American history that opened a new chapter for our nation.”
This ceremony commemorates Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom, more than two years after the Emanciapation Proclamation…