Festival caps Juneteenth celebration
Published 4:43 pm Saturday, June 21, 2025
VALDOSTA — A few hundred people turned out for the 33rd annual local celebration of Juneteenth, sponsored by the Southside Library Boosters Saturday at Payton Park, next door to the library.
Booths circled the walking track at the park, most of them representing service organizations in Valdosta and Lowndes County. Among them were Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for people in need; the Coastal Plain EOA, which operates Head Start programs in 10 counties as well as providing other services; and Wiregrass Technical College.
The Kappa Eta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority staffed three tables. One encouraged visitors to check their voter registration, and sorors there were also signing up teens for the sorority’s youth leadership institute. The adjacent table gave out information related to environmental concerns, especially recycling; they were giving away reusable shopping bags to cut down on the need for plastic bags during grocery trips. Across the walking track, another group of AKA sorors were focused on helping visitors grow economic wealth.
The event began with a drum call from the Family Village of Aya.
“Before there was slavery,” the emcee said, “there was Africa.”
After the drum call, Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter read a proclamation from the county and the City of Valdosta in honor of the commemoration of Juneteenth.
As the day progressed, there was live entertainment, including dance lessons from the Family Village of Aya.
Saturday’s festival capped a week of events sponsored by the library boosters in connection with the Juneteenth holiday. On Tuesday, participants were urged to support Black-owned businesses; on Thursday, they were urged to serve the community in some way; and on Friday, the McMullen Southside Library hosted a Black Family Reunion with a program and fish fry.
Juneteenth commemorates the notification of slaves in Texas that they were free. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863, but it was unenforceable in the states fighting to secede from the union. As federal troops conquered areas of the South, they were able to free the slaves there. On June 19, 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger ordered the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, the last of the former Confederate states to end slavery. Celebrations began the next year, making it the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States, but it did not become a federal holiday until 2021. Valdosta began its local celebration in 1992.
