By Yolanda Putman
Staff Writer
More than two dozen adults at the Bethlehem Center talked to youth today about the importance of reading in recognition of Juneteenth, a celebration of the day marking the end of slavery in Texas.
About 100 youth from the Bethlehem Literacy Academy participated in the event.
The Chattanooga Courier newspaper hosted the celebration along with the Mary Walker Historical & Educational Foundation and the Bethlehem Literacy Academy. John Edwards, publisher of the Courier, said slavery survived for so long because slaves were denied educations and the opportunity to read.
The Juneteenth celebration marks June 19, 1865, the day when slaves in Texas learned they were free. President Abraham Lincoln freed some slaves when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. But those in Texas didn’t know they were free until June 19, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston to enforce the slaves’ new freedoms.
Within a few years the celebration spread to other states, and it has become an annual tradition throughout the nation.
A second Juneteenth celebration is scheduled today at the Mary Walker Historical & Educational Foundation on Wilcox Boulevard.
E-mail Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Staff Writer
More than two dozen adults at the Bethlehem Center talked to youth today about the importance of reading in recognition of Juneteenth, a celebration of the day marking the end of slavery in Texas.
About 100 youth from the Bethlehem Literacy Academy participated in the event.
The Chattanooga Courier newspaper hosted the celebration along with the Mary Walker Historical & Educational Foundation and the Bethlehem Literacy Academy. John Edwards, publisher of the Courier, said slavery survived for so long because slaves were denied educations and the opportunity to read.
The Juneteenth celebration marks June 19, 1865, the day when slaves in Texas learned they were free. President Abraham Lincoln freed some slaves when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. But those in Texas didn’t know they were free until June 19, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston to enforce the slaves’ new freedoms.
Within a few years the celebration spread to other states, and it has become an annual tradition throughout the nation.
A second Juneteenth celebration is scheduled today at the Mary Walker Historical & Educational Foundation on Wilcox Boulevard.
E-mail Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
