Mount Clemens celebrates Juneteenth

MOUNT CLEMENS — Mount Clemens residents, friends and community members gathered to celebrate Juneteenth at the Cairns Community Center on June 18.

Held the day before Juneteenth (June 19), the event brought the community together for the holiday that celebrates the end of legal slavery in the United States.

“President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was signed and proclaimed on January 1, 1863,” Valerie Hamilton, president of the Macomb Section of the National Council of Negro Women, said. “And then two years later on June 19, 1865, that word finally reached the slaves in Texas when the Union soldiers had landed with the news that the Civil War had actually ended.”

The end of slavery has been celebrated essentially since the proclamation in 1865, and Texas is credited with one of the first state-level recognitions of Juneteenth via a proclamation of the holiday by the governor in 1938. Juneteenth was established as a state holiday in Texas by legislation passed in 1979. Florida, Oklahoma and Minnesota officially recognized Juneteenth throughout the latter half of the 20th century before a wave of states officially recognized Juneteenth in the 2000s.

Both houses of the Michigan Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 384 on June 17, 2005, to recognize the third Saturday in June as Juneteenth National Freedom Day, along with Sojourner Truth Day on Nov. 26. The federal government recognized Juneteenth via congressional resolution in the late 1990s, though the holiday did not become an official federal holiday until June 17, 2021.

Juneteenth has been celebrated in Mount Clemens for a long time, with 2022 being the first time the local NCNW section has helmed the county seat’s celebration. The Cairns Center was kept busy from 2 to 7 p.m. that Saturday with events, happenings and general revelry occurring inside and outside the center.

“We are going to have some team dancing, some African dances and drummers from youth groups,” Theresa McGarity, chair of the NCNW’s Juneteenth Committee, said prior to the event.

A number of vendors filled the center’s gymnasium representing various groups from government agencies and merchants, with historically Black colleges and universities, as well as Black fraternities and sororities coming by to encourage enrollment and participation, respectively. The Mount Clemens Public Library had a mobile library outside the center, where it shared space with several food trucks and some motorcycle groups. Some performances and speakers included the Major Praise dance group from Kingdom Community Church and 910 AM radio host Michael Imhotep.

Hosting the Mount Clemens Juneteenth celebration is one of several events held by the NCNW Macomb Section, which also holds an annual scholarship dinner.