LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nearly one year after Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday for city employees, he has signed an executive order forming a commission to organize the city's Juneteenth Jubilee Celebration.
The 15-member commission will review educational programming and develop virtual events for Juneteenth 2021, and then create ways to celebrate Juneteenth in years when health and safety precautions allow.
The commission includes Metro Council members Paula McCraney, Keisha Dorsey and Jecorey Arthur, Jerry Eaves with Simmons College of Kentucky, and more representatives from the city's faith, arts and business communities.
McCraney said the celebration will not only education the public on the significance of the day, but build upon the celebrations slaves had once they learned they were freed.
"Codifying the historic significance of the Emancipation Proclamation acknowledges that, although justice was delayed, justice was not denied," McCraney said.
Aukram Burton with the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage said the announcement, and the city's celebration, will help people from different perspectives begin to understand and address conversations about what it means to be Black in America.
Juneteenth is considered the oldest African-American holiday, celebrating the day Union Army general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to proclaim freedom from slavery on June 19, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed more than two years earlier.
After the proclamation, Burton said Granger traveled to Kentucky, where he commanded the Army of Kentucky. He and his wife are buried in Lexington.
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