On Saturday, June 15th, the World House Choir will again participate in the local Juneteenth Celebration sponsored by the Yellow Springs Community and the 365 Project.
The program starts at 11:30am on the Walnut Street side of Mills Lawn School and will include performances by the World House Choir, Tronee Threat, Misty Gill, Dr. Queen Zabriskie and Mercy Viola. The program will also include remarks by Gyamfi Gamerah and Dr. Kevin McGruder as well as readings of slave narratives by David Perry and Dr. Christopher Cox. Phillip O’Rourke will serve as master of ceremonies.
Just prior to the program at Mills Lawn, there is a historical walk leaving at 10:30am from the front of the Olive Kettering Library on the campus of Antioch College, a property that was once part of an enclave of Black property owners who began settling the area in the late 19th century. The walk will proceed past several other landmarks significant to Yellow Springs African-American history and end in front of Mills Lawn School.
Juneteenth commemorates the date of June 19, 1865, when Union Army troops arrived in Galveston, Texas where they delivered the news firsthand to enslaved people that they were free. They were delivering this news two months after the enslaved should have been freed following the surrender of the Confederate Army on April 9, 1865, the event that ended the Civil War. Rather than respond in a retaliatory manner, the formerly enslaved of Texas organized public celebrations centered on food and music.
Juneteenth became a U.S. federal holiday and a Village of Yellow Springs holiday in 2021. Because many employers have not yet incorporated the holiday into their schedules, the Yellow Springs Juneteenth Planning Committee decided to hold the celebration on Saturday, June 15, to enable more people to participate.