Greenwich To Commemorate Juneteenth This Week

GREENWICH, CT — The Greenwich community will come together this Friday to commemorate Juneteenth.

A proclamation ceremony will be held at 12 p.m. on June 17 at Town Hall. The Rev. Thomas Nins of First Baptist Church and YWCA of Greenwich CEO Mary Lee Kiernan will participate in the program, along with First Selectman Fred Camillo.

This is the fist time Greenwich will celebrate the federal holiday. On June 19, 1865, two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union soldiers arrived in Texas to free all remaining enslaved people.

Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021.