By David Gordon, associate editor
Eau Claire’s Juneteenth celebration will return to Carson Park on Saturday afternoon, a day after the first time it has been celebrated as a federal holiday.
The program is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the park’s Pine Pavilion. It is a free event and the public is invited to join in the celebration.
Juneteenth is the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, dating back to 1865. It became a federal holiday on Thursday when President Joe Biden signed legislation that was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S House of Representatives a day earlier.
It is the first federal holiday to be established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. The Senate passed the bill unanimously on Tuesday after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) dropped his opposition, which derailed similar legislation last year. Johnson said then that his opposition stemmed from the cost of an added paid holiday for federal workers.
Support for the proposal has grown markedly nationwide since the May, 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Minocqua) was one of only 14 House Republicans to vote against the bill, saying that it “fueled separatism.”
Today’s first-time observance of Juneteenth as a federal holiday resulted in most federal employees being told on Thursday that they should not to report for work today. The short notice has produced mixed results nationwide as to whether state government employees will get the day off.
In Wisconsin, Juneteenth has been a legal holiday since 2009.
Some further background
In 1865, Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, TX with the news that the Civil War was over and all slaves were freed. Many slave owners there hadn’t freed their slaves despite the fact that the war had ended over a month earlier, on May 9.
Last year, Eau Claire’s 20th observance of the holiday was celebrated with an all-day online program. This year’s local observance is sponsored by Uniting Bridges, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of under-represented groups here. Its current president is Prof. Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, a UW-Eau Claire History department faculty member who helped plan and coordinate the Carson Park program.
She said that Saturday’s celebration will include history, music and education. The goal is to unite the local community, which she said is enriched by its diversity.
“Uniting Bridges is happy to work with our partners to bring the community together for this event,” Ducksworth-Lawton said in a UW-EC press release. “Community, government, education and nonprofits working together is what makes this a stronger, more welcoming and more inclusive community.”
The Carson Park program will feature entertainment from regionally based music artists Irie Sol, Naalia and Samantha Moon. There also will be a spoken-word performance from Daminius the Artist.
Co-sponsors for the local event include the cities of Altoona and Eau Claire, the UW-EC chancellor’s office and Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Pablo Center at the Confluence and Royal Credit Union.