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This Saturday Is Juneteenth!

From the NAACP Rochester Branch MN Facebook page...

Celebrating 402 Years of Black Life Resilience! This year we are celebrating Rochester's 16th Annual Juneteenth Celebration that will include knowledge sharing, live music, art, food and much more. Join NAACP Rochester Branch MN, Journie, Diversity Council-Rochester, MN, Rochester Women Magazine and other community partners for this special event.

What's Journie?

It's a powerfully important mentor program in Rochester. From their website -

Our youth face a myriad of challenges in adolescence and the transition to adulthood. At Journie, we know that our youth are smart, creative, and curious. We see their limitless potential and aim to provide them with the skills and resources to envision and attain their ideal future. Journie is unique in it’s provision of high-quality, ongoing mentorship in addition to needs-based education and interactive learning experiences. Journie focuses not only on personal development, but on building a supportive, vibrant, and engaged community for our young people. (Source Link)

Join the celebration to witness three Journie graduates receive their certificates.

Twin Cities Summer Jam Ticket Special 2021
2021 Twin Cities Summer Jam
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From the Diversity Council-Rochester, MN, Facebook page...

It's going to be a beautiful day, please, visit, learn, laugh, maybe cry a bit from the feelings you'll feel, and find yet another reason Rochester, Minnesota is such a great place to live.

Didn't President Joe Biden Just Sign Something About Juneteenth? What Is It?

Yep. President Biden signed Juneteenth as  Federal Holiday into law this week.

President Biden Signs Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Into Law
Getty Images
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"WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 17: (L-R) Ninety-four-year-old activist and retired educator Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden after he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law in the East Room of the White House on June 17, 2021 in Washington, DC....The Juneteenth National Independence Day will become the 12th legal federal holiday — the first new one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)"

Juneteenth "commemorates the end of slavery, and is regularly observed since 1866. It's on June 19th of 1865 the announcement was made of "General Order #3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas."

But wait...hadn't the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 already outlawed slavery? Sure...but enforcement relied on troops, and it took a while for them to get to Texas (so after the war, slavery actually INCREASED in Texas). (Source)

You'll also see Mayo Clinic buildings in Rochester, Minnesota (and around the country) all about? Mayo is lighting their buildings in honor of Juneteenth.

Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
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As always, if you have a comment, complaint, or concern about something I wrote here, please let me know: james.rabe@townsquaremedia.com

Listen to James Rabe Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11-Noon on KROC AM 1340 and 96.9 FM and Weekdays with Jessica Williams Weekday from 6 - 10 AM on Y-105 FM

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