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Bloomington community celebrates Juneteenth, reflects on the value of freedom

By Wei Wang

Posted June 19, 2022

A hand fan reading "Juneteenth Freedom Day" sits on a Switchyarf Park picnic table.

The City of Bloomington hosted a community event commemorating Juneteenth at Switchyard Park Saturday. (Wei Wang, WFIU/WTIU News)

As Juneteenth approaches, Bloomington community members call the holiday an occasion for all Americans to celebrate freedom.

The City of Bloomington hosted a community event commemorating the holiday at Switchyard Park Saturday.

Speaking to participants at the event, Monroe County historian Elizabeth Mitchell said Americans are free only when freedom is guaranteed for all.

“We celebrate this day for the freedom of the soul of America,” she said.

Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of the emancipation of American slaves following the end of the Civil War. On this day in 1865, Union General Gordon Granger signed an order announcing to Texans that all enslaved people were now free.

Bloomington resident Tina Reed says Juneteenth is unique in celebrating all Americans’ freedom from subjugation.

“We weren’t free as African Americans Fourth of July, 1775,” she said. “We got our freedom later.”

Rev. William Alonzo Vance Jr. is president of the Monroe County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said the holiday is about compassion, faith and freedom from captivity.

“There is a song, ‘I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free,” he said. “That’s what this is about to me.”

This year marks the second-ever federal Juneteenth holiday after President Joe Biden signed it into law last year.

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