Juneteenth 2021: How Owings Mills Area Marks The End Of Slavery

RANDALLSTOWN, MD — With the stroke of his pen Thursday, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth an official annual holiday.

County Executive Johnny Olszewski on Friday closed Baltimore County government offices, courts and CountyRide van service in recognition of Juneteenth National Independence Day.

In Randallstown on Saturday, Olszewski will join U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones, Attorney General Brian Frosh, and other community leaders for the Randallstown NAACP's Juneteenth Virtual Celebration.

The celebration will be at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, on Zoom.

• Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84019651380
• The meeting ID is 840 1965 1380, and the passcode is 126582.

Owings Mills Juneteenth Events

A Juneteenth marketplace will be held at Hue Cafe & Apothecary, 10210 South Dolfield Rd., Owings Mills, MD 21117. Raffles, music and vendors will be part of the festivities, hosted in part by BMORE R.I.S.E.

The Charlize Angel Latonya Gilliam Foundation is putting on a Juneteenth Freedom Day pop-up and shop event at the Inner Artist Event Center at 8 Music Fair Rd Suite D, Owings Mills, MD 21117. It will run from noon to 4 p.m., and masks are required. Black-owned businesses will be featured.

Before Biden made Juneteenth an official holiday — something the Senate agreed to unanimously in a consent agreement and the House voted overwhelmingly for in a roll call vote — Juneteenth commemorations were held on June 19 to mark the end of slavery in the United States and the date many slaves in Texas finally found out they were free.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It is “a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings,” according to Juneteenth.com In recent years, Juneteenth has commemorated African-American freedom, with an emphasis on education and achievement.

Juneteenth is held on June 19 because that was the date in 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were free. Many of the slaves in Texas had not known of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had actually given them freedom more than two years earlier.

Granger read “General Order No. 3,” which stated, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves,” according to the city of Galveston, which has an historical marker for its connection to the holiday.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor and African American historian, wrote in The Root magazine that Juneteenth is “an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-importance and racial uplift.”

Most states have Juneteenth listed as an official holiday, although it is not a national holiday. In 1980, Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a holiday. In the time since, 45 other states have decided to officially recognize the day, according to The New York Times.

Juneteenth celebrations have occurred in most states, according to Juneteenth.com. A number of cities and towns held events and parades for the 150th anniversary in 2015.

Also On Patch: What Is Juneteenth? 5 Things To Know About The Holiday That Marks The End Of Slavery

More and more places are recognizing Juneteenth as an official holiday.

Annapolis will host Maryland’s first Juneteenth festival with a parade through the state capital.

"Celebrating Juneteenth as an official county holiday demonstrates our county's true commitment to freedom and equality — for all," Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement. "The growing national push for observance of Juneteenth is an important step as we move forward toward justice for this community, in light of centuries of racism, discrimination, and inequity."

Some major American brands — Twitter, Nike and the National Football League, included — have made Juneteenth a paid company holiday.

Related:

• Olszewski Announces Baltimore County Office Closures For Juneteenth
• Juneteeth Recognized As MD Holiday, State Marks End Of Slavery

— By Tim Moran and Elizabeth Janney