WHAT IS IT?Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.Source: juneteenth.com
One Chattanooga woman valued education so much that she sought after it even after she turned 100.
Mary Walker, a former slave who lived in Chattanooga, was 117 when she learned to read.
The Mary Walker Towers is named in her honor.
Walker is among the historymakers whom Juneteenth organizers want to highlight at the second annual Juneteenth Chattanooga celebration sponsored by Eastdale Village Community United Methodist Church and the Mary Walker Historical & Educational Foundation.