The annual Juneteenth celebration began this week in Wilmar and other communities.
According to a spokesman, the annual event, known in Wilmar as the June Dinner, has seen crowds of more than 5,000.
A member of the Juneteenth Association in Wilmar believes the community has probably held the celebration longer than any other city in the state, according to Juneteenth.com .
“My research has taken on a trail which caused me to conclude that the celebration began as far back as the 1900 or beyond,” Toni A. Perry was quoted as saying on the website.
Juneteenth is regarded as the oldest known observance commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States, the website said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Wilmar’s June Dinner 2012 highlights include:
Friday
6 p.m., DJ Gary Wilson from Pine Bluff; 8 p.m. Ceege, engineer for Atlantic Records, from Biloxi, Miss., in concert; 9 p.m., Vicki Baker from Monroe, La., in concert including her hit single “Right Thang Wrong Man”; 9 p.m., Walk Down Memory Lane Walk-a-Thon at the Wilmar Walking Track on Highway 278.
Saturday
10 a.m. vendors open; 12:30 p.m. parade line up, Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church, South Seventh Street; 1 p.m., June Dinner Parade 2012; 2:30 p.m., motorcycle burn-out, South Eighth Street; 5 p.m., June Dinner Car Show, Wilmar City Park, Highway 278 (behind the gym); Up and Coming Artists Concert, old School Campus, South Seventh Street; 8 p.m., TeamTakeOver featuring Oozzie Ammo and solo managed by Baller Boyzs in concert; 9 p.m., The Untouchables from Pine Bluff in concert.
History
“Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free,” Juneteenth.com . said. “Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863.”
Pine Bluff area resident Gerald Andrews, a former member of the African-American Advisory and Public Relations Committee at the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said in a June 2009 article that Juneteenth is given recognition in Arkansas via Act 2101 of 2005, whose lead sponsor was state Sen. Hank Wilkins IV.
The law expresses that Juneteenth is a memorial day noted as Juneteenth Independence Day, which ascribes the third Saturday in June to commemorate the end of over 200 years of slavery in the United States and to demonstrate racial reconciliation and healing from the legacy of slavery.
Other observances
Arts and Science Center
The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas at Pine Bluff has scheduled a Juneteenth performance June 23 that tells the local Civil War history. Cheryl Collins, director of Theatre at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, will direct students from the arts center’s living history theater camp. Details on arts center activities visit www.ArtsScienceCenter.org.
Mosaic Templars
Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will host the Juneteenth 2012 Community Street Festival Saturday.Beginning at noon at the corner of West Ninth and Arch Street in Little Rock, the event will feature vendors, kids activities and entertainment. Details: visit www.mosaictemplars.com/events.