Juneteenth

Dr. Zebulon Vance Miletsky, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, will discuss the history of Juneteenth, the reasons why it has become a national holiday and how it has been celebrated in Texas since 1865–first becoming a state holiday in Texas as early as 1980. As Miletsky has stated in a series of videos produced by Stony Brook University in 2021, "This is a time, separate and apart from July 4th to focus and celebrate on the bitter part of the American experience, which cannot be forgotten about—namely slavery. It doesn't mean that they are mutually exclusive or that one negates the other, but that they both must be recognized and observed.” Dr. Miletsky will also discuss the history of other, longer celebrations of emancipation in the Northeast and New England which were celebrating emancipation well before 1863—including here in New York and Long Island. In July of 2020, a resolution was passed by the NYS Assembly, and signed into law by Speaker Carl Hastie recognizing this earlier struggle in New York, which is now observed in July. Juneteenth is also now a state holiday in New York. Join us! Presented by the Huntington area libraries.  Please register.