In this Diocese the annual celebration is held at Anne Sherrill Park on San Bernardino’s west side; the 2018 event was held on June 16 where free services, food and entertainment were provided to the community. The Catholics of African Descent (CAD) of the Diocese, supported by the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, Court #257, has been a leader of the coalition of organizations that sponsor the popular celebration for over five years.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 whereby all the states that fought under the Confederacy were to cease the rebellion by January 1, 1863, at which time he would sign the document. On January 1, 1863, the proclamation was signed and the president declared that “all persons held as slaves are free” throughout the Confederacy. There was intense resistance and many slaveholders took their enterprise of human trafficking into the state of Texas.
The state of Texas, which had voted to secede from the Union in 1858 and fought with the Confederacy, resisted the decree and maintained slavery for two and a half more years. The fact that Texas was pretty isolated in the western United States may have been another reason for the delay in implementing the declaration.
On June 19, 1865, on orders from the President, General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston that the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was officially in effect in the state of Texas. Juneteenth celebrations are held in all parts of the nation and ours here in the Diocese is growing in popularity and participation. Texas, however, is the only state in the Union where June 19 is an official holiday.
Lois Carson is a founding member of Court #257 of the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, and is a parishioner of St. Anthony Catholic Church in San Bernardino.