Awareness: Happy Juneteenth, celebrating freedom day
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - HAPPY JUNETEENTH! This is the first year Juneteenth has been recognized as a federal holiday and it’s been long overdue. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday on June 19, 1865, slaves were finally freed in Galveston, Texas--- two years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the South in 1863. However, freedom could not be enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War which came in 1865.
Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. This year is the first year the holiday has been recognized on a federal level.
This week on Awareness, Tina Torres the Executive Director for the South Carolina Juneteenth Freedom Fest sits down with host Billie Jean Shaw to talk about the importance of Juneteenth, ways you can get involved and why more works needs to be done to continue to support Freedom Day for the African- American community.
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation recognizing June as Black Music Appreciation Month, celebrating the music as “intricately woven into the tapestry of our Nation.” In the proclamation, the President adds, “For generations, Black music has conveyed the hopes and struggles of a resilient people -- spirituals mourning the original sin of slavery and later heralding freedom from bondage, hard truths told through jazz and the sounds of Motown during the civil rights movement, and hip-hop and rhythm and blues that remind us of the work that still lies ahead.” In honor of Black Music Appreciation Month, Billie Jean Shaw caught up with one of the innovators of funk, George Clinton.
Billie Jean Shaw’s Father’s Day tribute!
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