Juneteenth celebrates freedom, community (GALLERY)

Blackstones Entertainment hosted a Juneteenth celebration at Pacana Park June 15, an annual event celebrating the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. The day included music, addresses, Maricopa-based vendors, a dunk tank and inflatable water slide. Traditionally celebrated sometime around June 19, it commemorates freedom of enslaved people in Confederate states during and after the Civil War. The proclamation was signed by President Lincoln in 1862 and ostensibly went into effect in 1863. Slaves in remote areas of Texas were the last to receive the announcement, in June 1865, two months after the end of the war, which became Juneteenth. (The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, outlawing slavery throughout the country, was ratified in December of that year.)

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