Friday marks the 161st anniversary of Juneteenth. Hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved Black people learned they were free on June 19, 1865.
General Gordon Granger, along with Union troops, arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced their freedom. The news came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
This year, on Juneteenth, “Closer Look” hosted its annual live community event at Roosevelt Hall in the historic Atlanta University Center neighborhood. The theme of the program was We Who Remain: Black Legacy & America at 250. The conversation, led by host Rose Scott, examined how Black history is preserved, remembered and carried forward.
The discussion also explored Juneteenth not only as a commemoration of emancipation, but as an ongoing practice of cultural preservation and collective memory, asking: What stories must be safeguarded for future generations?
