Budget has $134M gap as fiscal year nears its end
July 3, 2014CRIME BLOTTER: Reported offenses in the Tri-parish area
July 3, 2014Held at Thibodaux’s Martin Luther King Jr. Park, Lafourche Parish’s 2014 Juneteenth celebration was living proof, organizers said, of the event’s growing popularity.
Music, rides, food and speeches from community leaders marked the event, which is becoming a staple annual affair, which combines pride in current accomplishments with commemoration of slavery’s abolition in the United States.
“That is what this is all about; something for the community,” said Lafourche Parish NAACP President Burnell Tolbert. “A lot of people are still not so familiar with Juneteenth as they should be. People had a lot of questions. We’re getting a better understanding here in Thibodaux, especially from the young folks, and they need to know.”
Celebrated nationally, Juneteenth commemorates the announcement by federal troops to slaves in Galveston that they were free.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, essentially declaring that slaves were free by executive order, which took effect in 1863. But the document was not all-inclusive. Terrebonne, Lafourche and other parishes in Louisiana’s sugar belt were among the places specifically exempted from the order. History scholars say that’s because those places, already under federal control, were not deemed in rebellion against the nation.
Slaves nonetheless declared themselves free in some local communities, seizing the moment by walking off plantations or refusing to perform tasks assigned to them. The holiday takes its name from June 18 and 19th, 1865. On the 18th General Gordon Granger landed on Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops determined to make the proclamation stick in Texas, the state with the largest number of slaves.
A general order verifying that slaves were free was publicly read by Granger on June 19th, resulting in street celebrations.
Official recognition of Juneteenth occurs in several states, including Louisiana.
Tolbert and other community leaders said the message of Juneteenth is important, and that they hope in the future the celebrations will become more inter-racial in nature.
But most of all, Tolbert said, he is hopeful that the celebration will continue in popularity ad that young people especially will be drawn to it.
“It is very important for the youngsters,” Tolbert said. “It is important for them to know their history and culture and to understand.”
