Williamsburg area groups form organization to commemorate Juneteenth holiday
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — More than a dozen groups in the Greater Williamsburg area are coming together to celebrate Juneteenth. "It's not a Black holid...
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — More than a dozen groups in the Greater Williamsburg area are coming together to celebrate Juneteenth. "It's not a Black holiday. This is an American holiday," said Connie Matthews Hershaw, of Let Freedom Ring Foundation. "It's to celebrate the end of slavery." Juneteenth, acknowledged on June 19, marks the day in 1865 when federal forces told enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, that they'd been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier. This is the second year Juneteenth is being celebrated as a federal holiday.