Dallas nonprofits uncover city’s connection to Juneteenth in Monday celebration

It’s the third year that Juneteenth will be celebrated as an official federal holiday, and multiple nonprofits that promote Black history in Dallas are reminding people of the day’s importance.

In 2016, North Texas civil rights activist Opal Lee, known to many as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” marched from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to push for the day to be recognized nationally. President Joe Biden in June 2021 signed the bill to make Juneteenth a national holiday

Remembering Black Dallas on Monday is sponsoring an event to teach people about the city’s ties to the holiday, which started in 1865. It commemorates the day enslaved people in Galveston learned President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued more than two years prior.

“People don’t know how Juneteenth got to Dallas, how it traveled across the state and how it was announced and became part of oral tradition and history of African Americans in the city of Dallas,” Dulaney said.

More people should know what enslaved African Americans in the 1860s did to “force Lincoln’s hand” to sign the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

“African Americans had already made slavery the key issue of the Civil War,” Dulaney said. “It’s the actions that African Americans took when the Civil War started through 1861 and 1862 that begins to end slavery in this country.”

The event starts 6 p.m. at Old City Park in Dallas and is open to the public, according to the organization’s Facebook page. Preservation Dallas and the Dallas County Pioneer Association are also part of Monday’s event.