Emancipation Proclamation

Fourteen summers ago I happened upon a festive gathering in a strip mall parking lot on H Street and Owens Avenue. My first experience with Juneteenth happened to be the city’s first large-scale commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom.

Nevada is the 39th state to recognize June 19th in the annuls of American History. It was June 19th in 1865 when the last slaves in the south were…