Celebrating Juneteenth in NEPA

EYEWITNESS (WBRE/WYOU) — Juneteenth Day is still a few days away but celebrations kicked off in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties. Plenty of people gathered at both events.

Saturday afternoon was rich in black culture, from the food to the music all in celebration of Juneteenth.

What was billed as a Juneteenth Jubilee Block Party brought out a big crowd to Scranton.

While this marked the fifth time this event was held in the Electric City, Juneteenth has been celebrated nationally for decades.

It marks the day when Texas became the last state in the Confederacy to be informed that enslaved people were free.

The Black Scranton Project helps make sure our history is not forgotten.

“I feel like it’s a really great celebration of freedom and again like we don’t always have to be so focused on like black trauma. I think there’s so many other things that we can celebrate and I think this is one of those events,” said Gynis Johns the founder and CEO of the Black Scranton Project.

The event featured a hair braiding booth, food, and a skating rink just to name a few. One attendee who now calls Scranton home says it’s nice to have something like this in the community.

“You know to see a lot of people that look like me and such a small town is you know reassuring coming from a large city to a smaller town and you know seeing people that look like me having this community in this support a lot of people that have similar values. I think it’s very important,” explained Sena Adia from Scranton.

As Juneteenth kicks off here in Scranton the celebration continues over in Wilkes-Barre.

This celebration at Martin Luther King Junior Park is the third such one in the Diamond City.

“It’s important for us to have these kinds of events to continue to celebrate the diversity that exists in this area and boost up our voices our stories our needs and just provide a safe space in the community to be seen and heard and celebrated it’s very important,” said Rose Daniels the Vice President of the Wilkes-Barre NAACP.

Whether it’s held in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, or anywhere else in the U.S. leaders believe Juneteenth should be embraced the same way as other cultural celebrations.

“Juneteenth isn’t just for black people. It’s for everyone and I think we should start supporting other cultures and ethnicities the same way we support the Italian Festival or the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Everyone there is Irish or Italian but we all come out and have a good time tasting the culture and try the culture and learn new things and I think this can become that,” stated Johns.

Juneteenth is not till next week Wednesday but many decided to start their celebration early.

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