Juneteenth celebration on tap

Sampson County is less than two weeks away from a chance to participate in the second annual Juneteenth Celebration in Clinton, an event that honors the federal holiday of the same name, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

The event is set for Wednesday, June 19, the same day it officially came to pass in 1865. The planned fun, equal parts entertainment and education of African American history, will be at Clinton City Market, 215 Lisbon St., in downtown Clinton.

Festivities for the occasion will run from 4 to 7 p.m., and the entire celebration is completely free to the public. Organizers encourage attendees to bring a chair to enjoy the shows.

There are plenty of activities expected to be on, including from the event’s host, the soulful gospel voices of Miss Hattie and Friends.

Joining them will be staff from the J.C. Holliday Library who will be giving out free books to the youth in community. Should it be a scorcher that day, members of Silver Masonic Lodge No. 43 will be on location offering water. And members of the NAACP are providing voter registration to help any who need to be registered.

The ladies of Gamma Eta Eta are also set to be there offering free blood pressure screenings, weight screenings, Body Mass Index (BMI) checks and providing health information as well as facts about their organization. Also helpding to spread health awareness for the event will be members of the Sampson County YMCA.

The Uplift Project members will be selling lemonade and Juneteenth t-shirts, with all proceeds from those sales going towards helping the community youth and advocating for youth identified as displaced and in the foster care system.

New to this year’s event is live entertainment from the returning members of Carl Newton’s Review Band who shook the county during their debut visit for Ag Day 2024.

This year will also see a keynote address given by guest speaker Dr. Tawana Williams, “The Hope Coach,” a Thalidomide baby born without arms and an impaired use of her legs. Never hindered by her disability, Williams is now the founder and CEO of Tawana Williams Outreach, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) Non-Profit Organization based in Wilson. She is author of eight books and a certified Les Brown Platinum Speaker.

Also returning for its second year, will be an abundance of food trucks, vendors, an art exhibition and, organizers say, just all-round community fellowship that’ll be present throughout the event space.

Juneteenth, which combines June and nineteenth, is often referred to as National Black Independence Day as it truly signified the end of slavery in the United States.

After the Civil War ended, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger of the Union Army came to Gavelston, Texas and read General Order No. 3 — a moment that changed history forever for Black people in America. As stated, the date was June 19, 1865, two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was effective Jan. 1, 1863.

That began celebrations in Texas which continued for decades throughout the country before it was officially made a federal holiday after begin signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021.