SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – Savannah Mayor Van Johnson will lead the city’s third annual Juneteenth Walk to the River on Friday, a two-mile community walk designed to honor the meaning of Juneteenth and reflect on the history behind the holiday.
The walk is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. at Wells Park, 2299 Montgomery St., and will travel north along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, ending at MLK Jr. Park along the Savannah River.
Juneteenth, observed June 19, commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, bringing an end to chattel slavery in the United States. City leaders say the two-mile route is intentional, symbolizing the time it took for news of freedom to reach enslaved people in Texas — roughly two-and-a-half years after the proclamation was signed…