Organizers of Kensington’s 5th annual Juneteenth event hope this year’s event will do more than entertain attendees. They want it to spark conversations about the history and meaning of the holiday.
Retired U.S. Army JAG combat veteran and founder of the event Jamie Boston says he wants to alter the narrative around the celebration of Juneteenth, which officially became a federal holiday in the United States in 2021.
“We’re not going to run away from why Juneteenth exists,” Boston said. “I don’t want this to be another holiday where people have a good time, get the day off and then that’s it. I want them to reflect or understand what it’s really about.”
The origins of Juneteenth date to June 1865 when formerly enslaved people in the western most steate held by the Confederate soldiers finally got word they had been freed by 1863’s Emancipation Proclamation. History recorded the freedom news as happening around June 19, 1865. Since then, the day came to be known as “Juneteenth,” according to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture…