A celebration called Juneteenth marks the anniversary of freed black slaves in Texas. These slaves found out that they were free between June 13th and June 19th, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been passed.
The city of San Jose celebrates this event every annually, and is organized by the African-American Community Service Agency. This festival helps educate people about African-American history, provides health education for the African-American community, and also has live entertainment and multicultural food. In 1995 it was held at Spartan Stadium at San Jose State. The city of Milpitas also celebrates this event. The Milpitas event took place at Cardoza Park in 1995.
East Palo Alto celebration was sponsored by the City of East Palo Alto but is recent years was sponsored by a private citizen, Msanyu Satterwhite. In 1995, the celebration had African Art work and traditional foods and was held at Bell Street Park. Unfortunately, The East Palo Alto event was cancelled in 1996 due to lack of funding.
Tamika Haynes, " Celebrating the start of a march to freedom", San Jose Mercury News, Friday, June 9th, 1995, Morning Final, Eye, p.29
Koh, Barbara, "Hundreds play, dance, socialize at Juneteenth that almost wasn't", San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, June 8th, 1995, Penninsula/AM, Local, p.1b
Theresa C. Viloria, "Milpitas to present modest Juneteenth Black Caucus event set for Cardoza Park", San Jose Mercury News, Wednesday, June 21, 1995, Morning Final, East Extra, p.3
Mia Thibeaux
