Juneteenth Commemoration

June 23, 2108

Trent House Museum

Trenton, NJ

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  It was on June 19th, 1865,  when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

On June 23, members of SSAAM joined other members of the Sankofa Collective at the Trent House Museum in Trenton, NJ, for a Commemoration of Juneteenth. The event focused on the history and significance of Juneteenth, a Harriet Tubman actress describing her work on the Underground Railroad and with the Union Army, a reenactor representing an African American soldier, who read General Granger's Order #3 freeing the last slaves in America, and the inspiring voice of Sister Bertha Morgan.