WINNSBORO – A Juneteenth celebration parade is planned down Congress St. in Winnsboro on Saturday, June 17, at 10 a.m.
The parade will line up at 9 a.m. at the corner of Moultrie and S. Vanderhorst streets. Entertainment will follow the parade at the Fairfield High Alumni School (408 Fairfield St).
Established on June 19, 2021, Juneteenth is the newest federal holiday in the calendar. Its origins, however, date to the final weeks of the Civil War.
The commemoration arose from the freeing of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, eleven weeks after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The act helped fulfill the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862. It took effect on Jan. 1, 1863.
But it took a while for that freedom to come to much of the nation, especially Texas.
By 1865, some 250,000 blacks remained enslaved in Texas, even as the end of the war was imminent.
On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston to assume command of a Union force of 2,000 troops. That same day, Granger declared that all slaves are free.
Today, Juneteenth is celebrated across the country as well as in Fairfield County.
The parade is being organized by Sylvia Harrison (803-240-2209) and Kolisa Willingham Douglas (803-338-0568.)