(CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif.) Both Antioch and Pittsburg will host Juneteenth celebrations this Saturday.
Antioch's second annual Juneteenth Celebration will be hosted by resident Claryssa Wilson and will feature a Peace Walk as part of the four-hour in-person event.
“Juneteenth is a celebration of Freedom and community. As a youth that has grown up in this community, I am very committed to celebrating the diversity within our community and bringing awareness to the culturally rich history of Antioch.” Wilson said in a statement.
Tracie Berry McGhee will be the featured emcee and a number of local artists and musicians will participate in the event. Kaiser Permanente will also host a free COVID-19 vaccination pop-up.
Pittsburg's Juneteenth celebration will be held at City Park, hosted by Los Medanos Community Healthcare District and Souljah. The event will also include music, artists and free COVID-19 vaccinations. For more information click here.
The city of Richmond will celebrate Juneteenth with an event featuring performances by the East Bay Center for Performing Arts. This comes after Richmond's city council voted to officially recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.
This all comes as Congress and President Biden plan to officially recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Soldiers brought news of the Emancipation Proclamation to a group of former slaves in Galveston, Texas. This news came two months after the official confederate surrender and more than two years after the delivery of the Emancipation Proclamation. At the time, Galveston was one of the most Western cities that still owned slaves.