Juneteenth To Be Celebrated With A Festival In Bristol

For too long, Juneteenth hasn’t had a place among the summer holiday season for many people. This Saturday in Bristol Borough, that certainly won’t be the case.

The Lower Bucks County Juneteenth Committee will host a festival at Bristol Borough’s waterfront near the wharf from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The event will feature vendors, music, dancers, food, guest speakers, nonprofit groups, a COVID-19 vaccine clinic from the Bucks County Health Department, cultural exhibits, and Louise Davis, a local resident and descendant of Harriet Tubman.

The date marks the emancipation of the last large group of enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves as of 1863, but Confederate states didn’t recognize it during the Civil War.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan piece of legislation into law making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The day will be the 12th federal public holiday and the latest since President Ronald Reagan signed the law that created Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Korah Steed, who is helping organize the Bristol Borough event, said making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a good first step. She said Saturday’s event will help bring awareness to the history behind the day.

“This is celebrating our Blackness and everyone can come. I’m just happy we get to celebrate,” she said.

Steed compared the event to typical cookouts and celebrations held across the country by Black families.

Morris Derry, founder of No More Pain Inc. and one of the celebration organizers, said he wants people to learn about history of the holiday.

“We’re doing this to bring people together. We want to educate everyone about it,” he said.

Comparing the event to the numerous cultural festivities held in Bristol Borough each year, Derry said he aims to get people out to explore and dip into another culture.

The organizers complimented Bristol Borough officials and the police chief for working with them to get the Juneteenth event off the ground.

While the Juneteenth event aims to become an annual festival in Lower Bucks County, Steed and Derry said families need to do better at educating their kids and schools should improve their curriculum to cover the tough topic of slavery and racism around the year.

Steed, who went to Bristol Borough schools, explained that she didn’t learn much about Juneteenth in classes.

“It wasn’t until I went to Temple University I learned about it,” she said.

Derry, a Langhorne Borough native whose grandmother was heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement, said he learned about Juneteenth and the history of slavery through his family.

“This is what we need to do: we need to educate people,” he said. “There’s so much work to be done.”

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