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Toledo Museum of Art Celebrates Fourth Annual Juneteenth
Festival
Special to The Truth
On Saturday, June 21, the Toledo Museum of Art and its
Committee for Cultural Diversity present the fourth annual
Juneteenth Celebration. This free festival features music,
dance, film, art demonstrations, food and hands-on art
activities. A highlight of this year’s event is a talk and
book signing by author and actress, Victoria Rowell. Rowell
will speak about how the arts influenced her childhood in
the foster care system. Following her presentation, she will
sign copies of her book, The Women Who Raised Me. A limited
number of free book signing tickets will be available after
June 3 by calling 419-254-5771, ext. 7494.
TMA’s Juneteenth Celebration recently received an
Institutional Excellence Award from the Ohio Museums
Association – the association’s highest honor. In 2006,
Juneteenth was named winner of a Northwest Ohio Black Media
Association Impact Newsmaker Award for making a positive,
newsworthy difference in the local African-American
community
What Is Juneteenth?
President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went
into effect on January 1, 1863, freeing all enslaved people
in the Confederate States. However, it was two years later,
on June 19, 1865, when more than 250,000 enslaved
African-Americans in Texas heard the news that they could
call themselves free. The celebrations that followed the
reading of the Proclamation in Texas began a tradition that
has lasted more than 130 years and is celebrated today in
cities across America.
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