Twin Cities 19th Annual Juneteenth Festival
by Wendy McCormick

FULL STORY

Juneteenth is the recognition and celebration of the June 19, 1865 freeing of slaves in Galveston, Texas, two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. For many, Juneteenth represents the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom.

The Juneteenth Freedom to Vote Project
In 2003, the Board of the Juneteenth Twin Cities Celebration voted to expand the Juneteenth effort through non-festival activities consistent with the Spirit of Juneteenth. The Spirit seeks to better economic and social conditions in the communities of people of African descent and to connect with people in other communities of color. The Spirit embodies freedom, renewal, rebirth, creativity, and potential.

The Freedom to Vote Project is the first effort by Juneteenth Twin Cities to act in a broader way to ground the Spirit of Juneteenth. This effort will establish a large non-partisan metro-wide working collaborative, which will focus on voter education, registration, getting out the vote and protecting people's right to cast it. This collaborative will first concentrate on people of African descent and then on all who are generally under-represented in the electoral process. We will focus on finding ways to help citizens to register and vote who often have difficulties exercising their right to vote. Those include citizens who are people with disabilities, illiterate, infirm elders, felons who have had their rights restored, and those who have English as a second language.

Juneteenth's work will be to facilitate the reach of other organizations whose traditional roles have been to increase citizen participation in the voting process. The collaborative will also reach out to individuals and organizations whose work does not usually involve them with voter education-registration get out the vote efforts but who have a stake in seeing more people in their communities become engaged, active, involved citizens. We feel that participating in the voting process is a first step in self-empowerment.

On June 19, in Theodore Wirth Park, 11 am to 7 pm, join more than 60,000 people as they celebrate the 19th Annual Twin Cities Juneteenth Festival and 139 years of FREEDOM.. This year's theme is We are Family - We Are One.
For information call 612-238-FREE (3733) or www.juneteenthminnesota.org This year's Juneteenth is a Tobacco Free, Alcohol Free, Drug Free event.

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Last updated on June 20, 2004
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