Gainesville will celebrate Florida’s Emancipation Day, honoring the end of slavery in the state, by reading proclamations, flying flags, admiring artists and frying fish.
Friday kicks off the city’s second annual “Journey to Juneteenth,” a monthlong celebration honoring the end of slavery. The celebration begins on the anniversary of the day Union General Edward McCook read the proclamation ending slavery in Florida at the Knott House in Tallahassee at the end of the Civil War on May 20, 1865. It concludes by commemorating when the last enslaved Black people in the U.S. heard the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.
Gainesville is celebrating the day with two events at City Plaza and the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center.
Nathaniel Courtney, Jr., a 39-year-old Black history activist, said it’s important to understand and celebrate both Juneteenth and Florida’s Emancipation Day, which speaks to Florida's true history and culture. His organization is one of seven City of Gainesville partners participating in “Journey to Juneteenth.”
“When we come together to recognize this moment in history, to reflect on where African-American people have come as a community, where the United States has come as a community,” Courtney said, “Then we begin to really do the work that is necessary for us to live up to the true ideals of this country: equality, liberty, justice and freedom.”
The Emancipation Day celebrations will start at 9 a.m. with a reading of the Juneteenth proclamation and the raising of the Juneteenth Flag at the City Hall Complex at 200 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601.
The Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center will hold a fish fry dinner at 5 p.m. and a program featuring local artists, singers and poets at 6:30 p.m., Courtney said.
Samiyah Thomas, a 19-year-old UF business administration senior, said May 20 reminds her of how the Black community had to work to overcome a history of slavery, segregation and ongoing discrimination.
She said she would like to see the university formally recognize the day through events and small gatherings. It's important for people to know the history behind the state they live in, she said.
Contact Jackson Reyes at jacksonreyes@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @JacksnReyes.
Jackson Reyes is a UF journalism senior and The Alligator's Fall 2023 Sports Editor. He previously served as Digital Managing Editor and was a reporter and assistant editor on the sports desk. In his free time, he enjoys collecting records, long walks on the beach and watching Bo Nix.
