Winchester’s first Juneteenth celebration welcomes everyone

Winchester held its first (of many, as we’ve been told) Juneteenth Celebration right here on Washington Street on Saturday, June 20. 

Organized by the Winchester Labor Day & Juneteenth Committee, events includ­ed a his­tor­i­cal pre­sen­ta­tion by Dr. Elaine Farris, Natalya & Evea Williams of the Williams Sisters Praise Dancers, speech­es, dance, and songs per­formed by Juneteenth Pageant par­tic­i­pants, music by DJ Brown, a tra­di­tion­al Congolese drum and dance by Kumba, Dis n Dat Dance Company, and live music by One Sound Band. 

There were also spe­cial appear­ances by Jerone Morton, for­mer George Rogers Clark High School bas­ket­ball star and cur­rent University of Kentucky bas­ket­ball play­er. Jeremiah Mundy-Lloyd, a for­mer GRC foot­ball and bas­ket­ball play­er and for­mer Union College foot­ball play­er, vol­un­teered his day to help ensure the event was a success. 

As an extreme­ly pale per­son (i.e, much like a sick­ly Victorian child), some may have ques­tioned my arrival there, but it wasn’t long before peo­ple of all walks of life began to show up, brows­ing the booths, grab­bing some deli­cious food, and enjoy­ing the entertainment. 

Because, despite what some may think, Juneteenth is for everyone. 

The prac­tice of rec­og­niz­ing Juneteenth began almost imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing an event in Texas. 

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freed all enslaved peo­ple in the South, but the Civil War con­tin­ued until April 1865. Texas became the per­fect spot for Confederate enslavers to run, as the iso­la­tion of the area allowed con­tin­ued enslave­ment with­out consequence. 

That all changed when Union troops arrived on June 19, 1865, enforc­ing the Emancipation Proclamation and free­ing the remain­ing 250,000 enslaved African Americans. And thus began the cel­e­bra­to­ry gath­er­ings among those freed peo­ple every June 19^th. 

Initially, it was called Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, or Freedom Day. As the freed peo­ple moved around the coun­try, they took the tra­di­tion of cel­e­brat­ing June 19^th with them, gain­ing more and more momen­tum dur­ing the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, since eman­ci­pa­tion was only the begin­ning for the Black com­mu­ni­ty to tru­ly be free and thrive. 

Its first dec­la­ra­tion as a nation­al hol­i­day was in Texas in 1979, with con­tin­ued recog­ni­tion through 2021 dur­ing the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, when it was declared a nation­al holiday. 

Despite all of this infor­ma­tion being eas­i­ly acces­si­ble, there are still peo­ple who claim they’ve nev­er heard of Juneteenth, don’t under­stand why it’s a hol­i­day, or express offense that there is a hol­i­day specif­i­cal­ly for “one race, eth­nic­i­ty, cul­ture, her­itage, etc.” 

But that’s the biggest point to the cel­e­bra­tions being held across the United States and our very first Juneteenth Celebration this year in our town. 

Juneteenth is for EVERYONE. Every sin­gle per­son in the US has the abil­i­ty and jus­ti­fi­ca­tion to rec­og­nize this holiday. 

“We want fam­i­lies to come togeth­er, local busi­ness­es to grow, young peo­ple to see them­selves rep­re­sent­ed, and neigh­bors from every back­ground to learn from one anoth­er,” explains McKeon Mundy-Asamoah, sec­re­tary for the Winchester Labor Day & Juneteenth Committee. 

Juneteenth is a show of free­dom, resilience, hope, and con­tin­ued action for equal­i­ty. It’s also a reminder that law changes don’t always mean day-to-day changes with­out con­tin­ued edu­ca­tion and enforce­ment. It’s an inte­gral part of US his­to­ry that we all ben­e­fit from being edu­cat­ed about. 

The themes of resilience, rights, and free­dom are applic­a­ble across any demo­graph­ic, and acknowl­edg­ing this mon­u­men­tal day in the his­to­ry of Black Americans isn’t a slight against oth­er his­to­ries but is about includ­ing ALL his­to­ries that have built the beau­ti­ful melt­ing pot of cul­tures we now get to enjoy. 

As we’re all painful­ly aware, this country’s his­to­ry has been (and still is) often mold­ed and white­washed into some­thing com­fort­able or ignored, allow­ing the same mis­takes to con­tin­ue to be made, even in 2026. 

I read some­thing online recent­ly — some “rec­om­mend­ed” social fig­ure that Facebook plopped into my feed while I was doom­scrolling — that said, “Juneteenth is for Black Americans to cel­e­brate and white Americans to observe,” and this expressed per­fect­ly how I felt about being present at the Juneteenth Celebration this year. It wasn’t exclusive. 

It didn’t restrict any peo­ple. It was joy­ful. It was hel­los and hugs and danc­ing in the street. 

Mundy-Asamoah shared, “We are proud of every­one who attend­ed, per­formed, vol­un­teered, spon­sored, and sup­port­ed Winchester’s First Annual Juneteenth Celebration. We wit­nessed peo­ple from dif­fer­ent back­grounds com­ing togeth­er in peace, shar­ing cul­ture, music, food, edu­ca­tion, and fel­low­ship. You do not have to attend every event, agree with every event, or cel­e­brate every occa­sion the same way. What we can do is respect one anoth­er and rec­og­nize that every com­mu­ni­ty has room for dif­fer­ent cul­tures, tra­di­tions, and celebrations.” 

Whether it be from lack of infor­ma­tion, lack of expo­sure, fear of the unfa­mil­iar, or any oth­er rea­son that you may not yet under­stand Juneteenth, I encour­age you to attend events dur­ing which the true his­to­ry of our coun­try, espe­cial­ly Winchester’s own future Juneteenth events, for an amaz­ing dis­play of com­mu­ni­ty and the hope for a con­tin­ued upward motion of diver­si­ty and inclusion. 

And in the mean­time, we can keep the spir­it of uplift­ing mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties by lis­ten­ing, learn­ing, eco­nom­ic sup­port, and con­tin­ued respect­ful participation. 

The Winchester Labor Day & Juneteenth Committee would like to extend a spe­cial thank you to the strong com­mu­ni­ty sup­port and spon­sors, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to Greater Clark Foundation, Ale-8-One, Winchester Chamber of Commerce, and Blue Grass Community Foundation.