By Ian Karbal, austintalks.org
Rickie Brown, CEO and founder of the West Side Historical Preservation Society (WSHPS), has been fighting to raise awareness for Juneteenth since he first saw it celebrated in Chicago in 1995.
“I didn’t know anything about Juneteenth,” Brown said. “I happened to see something I hadn’t seen in a long time, and it was a red, black and green flag … over in Garfield Park.”
The red, black and green flag is the Pan-African flag, designed by Marcus Garvey in 1920 to represent the freedom and pride of African-descended people everywhere.
The June 19th holiday marks the liberation of the last African-American slaves in the United States in 1865, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas. It has since become an independence day for African Americans around the country.
Read more at http://austintalks.org/2018/06/juneteenth-celebration-kicks-off-this-weekend/
