By Allen D. Payton

During their meeting last night, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, the Antioch City Council unanimously approved the following proclamation including promotion of this Sunday’s third annual City-sponsored event:

PROCLAMATION COMMEMORATING JUNETEENTH 2024

WHEREAS, Juneteenth is recognized as Freedom Day or our country’s second Independence Day;

WHEREAS, Juneteenth was the day that slavery ended in the United States resulting in the emancipation of all slaves and beginning the restoration of culture, name, language, faith, and identity;

WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln first issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the enslaved people in the South, but those orders were ignored by Confederate Southern slave owners;

WHEREAS, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and enforced the President’s order, freeing the enslaved people two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued;

WHEREAS, other systems of oppression and systematic inequalities, such as sharecropping, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration, the reverberation of Black bodies and Black impoverishment, continued well past slavery and some persist to this day, affecting the physical and mental health, safety, and even the continuing education of young African American children;

WHEREAS, liberation from these systems of oppression, demands nothing less than Black economic liberation manifested through financial literacy, a positive sense of self, an upright ethical and moral compass, high-earning jobs, mentors willing to share the means of self-improvement, and the ability to own the land in one’s own neighborhood;

WHEREAS, many African Americans have advanced academically, politically, and financially and continue to strive to build wealth within the Black community in and beyond; and

WHEREAS, on June 16, 2024, the City of Antioch will hold its Annual Juneteenth Celebration at Williamson Ranch Park, with speakers sharing our rich, proud history, music, ethnic foods, and activities. We invite all our brothers, sisters, and friends of every culture and ethnicity to join us for this historical event and celebration.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, LAMAR A. HERNANDEZ-THORPE, Mayor of the City of Antioch, do hereby acknowledge June 19th, 2024, as Juneteenth in the City of Antioch, the annual recognition of Black emancipation, the celebration of the past, present, and future of Black economic liberation, and our commitment to eradicate systemic racism that undermines our collective prosperity.

JUNE 11, 2024

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Following its reading and signature by Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, the proclamation was presented to Antioch Police Oversight Commissioner Leslie May with whom the council members took a commemorative photo.

the attachments to this post:

Juneteenth Proclamation photo 06-11-24

ACC Juneteenth Proclamation header 06-11-24

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