Juneteenth celebration held in Alamogordo's Washington Park
Juneteenth is celebrated as the oldest commemoration to the end of slavery in the U.S.
For some its history is little known, a fact that a celebration of the federal holiday in Alamogordo Saturday, June 17 at Washington Park hoped to change.
In 1865 Major General Gordon Granger led Union soldiers to Galveston, Texas where he announced that those who were once slaves, were now free men and women. This was two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which had little to no impact on slave owners in Texas due to the small amount of Union soldiers capable of implementing the order.
Alamogordo resident Joy Bordenave who organized a kids' play circuit at the Juneteenth event said she had little to no knowledge about Juneteenth when she was young.
“You know, I’m going to be honest, I had no clue about Juneteenth when I was a lot younger and knew a lot of people who did not know about it,” Bordenave said. “As I got older and started to learn more about history was when I kind of learned about it.”
Bordenave said that as she grew up sometimes certain things were not taught in schools, and she felt that Juneteenth was one of those.
“I think students should be able to learn everything about our history. I know a few people to this day who may not know what Juneteenth is or why its celebrated and that’s why we have to continue to celebrate it and have events like this,” Bordenave said. “We just have to really teach our youth all the history we have, the good and the bad so they are well informed.”
Bordenave was not the only person who said she had no clue what Juneteenth was. Juneteenth coordinator Everett Brown said when he moved to Alamogordo from Washington in 2007, he had no idea what Juneteenth meant, let alone what it was.
“When I moved here in '07, I had no idea what Juneteenth was, didn’t hear it, never heard about it and I was in the nation's capitol so you would think it was hot out there, but it wasn’t,” Brown said.
Brown said he grew up in the south where he was certain it was something not prevalent to the area.
“It probably wasn’t until about 2012 when I started hearing about it and actually reading about it, then when COVID happened some friends and myself decided to start with a potluck out in the park for Juneteenth and it we grew it from there,” Brown said.
Brown said the goal is not simply to celebrate the day and the history but to inform people and youth that don’t know.
Brown along with Bordenave had said each year more people learn about the day and the event grows a bit more.
“Once it became a national holiday, we decided we could not stop celebrating and said you know what, the youth doesn’t know about it,” Brown said. “This is something we need to keep up because it is something that needs to be taught.”
Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.
This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Alamogordo residents celebrate Juneteenth history
