Municipal Offices Will be Closed For Juneteenth In East Brunswick

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — In observance of Juneteenth all Municipal offices in East Brunswick will be closed Monday .

The township will officially commemorate Juneteenth on Saturday, June 24 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Community Arts Center.

There will be a flag raising ceremony, followed by the recitation of names, spoken word, tribal drumming and dance and more.

The Monday, June 19, national holiday commemorates the day in 1865, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, when word finally reached the last enslaved people in Texas that the Civil War had ended, and they were free.

Also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is the oldest-known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation making it a federal holiday, the first since the addition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

• Related: What Is Juneteenth? Celebrating The End Of Slavery