How the city recognized the holiday in 2022

Juneteenth, the national commemoration of the end of slavery in 1865, falls on a Sunday this 12 months. However Louisville was bustling Saturday with occasions across the metropolis to acknowledge the vacation.

On the Norton Healthcare Sports activities & Studying Middle, as an illustration, individuals walked or raced across the West Finish monitor to honor Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black girl killed by police in 2020 in an incident that sparked months of protests. The Race For Justice raised cash for six totally different organizations across the metropolis and was coordinated by Waggener Excessive College college students and up to date graduates.

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“Juneteenth… symbolizes the battle that Black individuals have needed to put in simply to be on the identical taking part in discipline as different individuals on this nation,” mentioned Jamia Fletcher, a member of the student-led social justice group Future Ancestors. “It is actually necessary to me that we all the time do not forget that and we all the time pay homage to the individuals who got here earlier than us and put within the work in order that I could be the place I’m immediately doing what we’re doing immediately.”

The staff race consisted of 26 laps – one for annually that Taylor lived. Contributors may additionally participate in a 1.3-mile run/stroll race, to acknowledge the day Taylor was killed on March 13. Music and meals had been accessible for these in attendance, together with artwork that was made throughout the 2020 protests, Fletcher mentioned.

Mayor Greg Fischer was in attendance as effectively, sooner or later after collaborating within the Juneteenth Artwork Camp on the Waterfront Park. Fischer mentioned the occasion organizers are “making the town a extra simply place.”

“For them to understand they’ve that energy inside themselves is a extremely necessary factor,” he mentioned. 

Cash raised on the occasion will go to assist a number of native advocacy teams and causes, organizers mentioned, together with the Bail Undertaking, Americana World Neighborhood Middle, La Casita Center, Mattingly Edge, Queer Kentucky and the Roots 101 African American Museum.

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A number of different occasions to acknowledge Juneteenth had been set to happen over the weekend as effectively.