NAACP hosts third annual Juneteenth celebration in Monument Park
The Lebanon County branch of the NAACP will be holding its third annual Juneteenth/Freedom Day Celebration on Saturday, June 17.
The event, free to the public, will be held at Monument park at 8th and Lehman Streets, 1-5 p.m.
Its new location, moving from South Hills Park, came from a need as the NAACP has seen increased interest for the festival since its inception and needed more room, according to chapter president Tony Fields.
The rising interest, as well as the centrality of Monument Park, suggests to Fields that turnout will be better than ever.
In the case of inclement weather, the event will be moved across the street to St. Mark's United Church of Christ at 426 N. 8th St.
The celebration will include music, food, games spoken word performances, African dance and drumming and yoga for families and more, along with presentations on the history of the holiday.
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The history, Fields said, is the point.
"One thing we promise to do as a unit is to educate people," Fields said. "We had the African American Heritage event a couple of months ago, now we're doing this. We want to continue to remind people of who we are and also remind people of the rights they have because of the independence and freedom that was given to them. We have a right to continue to proclaim, to understand, equal justice, political equality, rights of citizenship, the rights to vote."
"We hope, on this day of celebration, that people will celebrate, but after the celebration, they go home and think about what it means to live in a community with each other."
A sense of community in Lebanon County is something that needs to be worked on, Fields said. While there are plenty of community organizers and resources, they need to start working together.
Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021 and commemorates the end of racialized slavery in the United States.
Sometimes called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day, the name Juneteenth stems from combining June and 19th, the day in 1865 in which Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that the war had ended and they were free, over two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, ending the Civil War, and more than two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
"I know a lot of people get caught in, 'it's a Black thing,' but it's not a Black thing. It's a human thing. For humanity," Fields said. "I want you to really understand that it's a human thing. As humans, to find ways to live in harmony with one another. I think that's what we need..."
"...All the stuff that's been happening here lately in our community, this a good time for us to come together and try and find answers and live together. Listen, we are hurting together, why can we heal together?"
Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on Twitter @djlarlham
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon NAACP hosts third annual Juneteenth celebration.
