Juneteenth Celebrations Begin in New Britain

The celebration of Juneteenth in New Britain began on Saturday with the New Britain Museum of American Art’s 23rd Annual Juneteenth ”Access for All Community Day.”

The event at the Museum is the first in the 2024 “Passport to Freedom” celebration in the city.

Alongside numerous other community events, such as at the New Britain Public Library, with the “Passport to Freedom” series, the New Britain community celebrates when slavery was finally ended in Texas by the force of arms of federal troops, well after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth is a national celebration of the end of slavery, won by the victory in the Civil War. The National Museum of African American History and Culture, says that, when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863,

not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as “Juneteenth,” by the newly freed people in Texas.

In addition to the Community Day at the Museum, there are three other events in the 2024 “Passport to Freedom” series.

The New Britain Black Ministerial Alliance is hosting a Gospel Concert celebrating Juneteenth. The concert is Monday, June 17, 2024 at 5:30pm at 90 Main Street.

On Tuesday, June 18th at 5:00pm, Gallery 66 is holding the Opening Reception for its “Freedom Proclaimed” Exhibition, with an Artist Talk with Pierre Sylvain.

Finally, on Juneteenth, itself, June 19th, from 5:00pm to 8:00pm the city Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and Mayor Erin Stewart are hosting the city’s 2024 Juneteenth Freedom Festival in downtown New Britain.