A Special Mamaroneck Juneteenth Celebration This Saturday

MAMARONECK, NY — A "Juneteenth Ancestral Awakening" festival, organized by OneMamaroneck, is set for this Saturday, from noon - 6 p.m. in Columbus Park.

Organizers say the festival was created by African-American and Black leaders from Mamaroneck and will be centered on the five pillars of food, family, music, education and faith.

The planned "celebration of love, life and resiliency" will have drumming, song and dance performances, repainting of the Black Lives Matter street mural, a basketball tournament, outdoor games, face painting and food vendors.

Admission is free. More information on Black history in Mamaroneck can be found here.

All proceeds will go to REALM (Recognizing Enslaved Africans of Larchmont And Mamaroneck).

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Liberation Day, is a celebration of the end of slavery in the U.S. It is officially celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the day in 1865 when Union Major General Gordon Granger marched into Galveston, TX and announced that the Civil War was over. Galveston was the last city in the nation that still had slaves, and they were freed after Granger arrived.

After being celebrated by the African American community for more than a century, Juneteenth was made an official federal holiday in 2021.