First Ever Juneteenth Flag Raising To Be Held In Montgomery County

NORRISTOWN, PA — Montgomery County will hold its first ever Juneteenth flag raising ceremony this month as part of its growing commemoration of the abolishment of slavery in the United States.

The event will be held on Thursday, June 15 at 1 p.m. at the Montgomery County Courthouse, and will feature a slew of community and county leaders and a formal reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Emacipation Proclamation.

County Commissioners Ken Lawrence and Jamila Winder will be on hand, as well as county judge Virgil Walker. The event will also feature presentations from student winners of the Juneteenth Art and Prose of Freedom contest.

The flag raising is one of numerous special events planned in the county for Juneteenth, which is celebrated federally on Monday, June 19.

• The Peter Wentz Farmstead, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site in Lansdale, will hold special tours on June 17 and 18. Tickets and details here.
• Pottsgrove Manor in Pottstown will hold a special event tracing roots of free Black ironworkers in the region on June 17, from noon to 2 p.m. No registration is required.
• Free admission to to the Charles L. Blockson Exhibition, one of the nation's largest collection of African-American cultural and historical artifacts, will be offered from June 17 through June 19, at Centre Theater in Norristown.
• "Freedom on the Mainline" will be held from noon to 6 p.m. on June 17 at the Vernon Young Playground in Ardmore.
• The Norristown Jubilee Festival will be held from noon to 6 p.m. on Monday, June 19, from noon to 6 p.m.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that the Civil War was over and slavery had been abolished.

While symbolically important, this did not end slavery in the United States. That did not occur until the passage of the 13th Amendment several months later, in Dec. 1865.

However, Juneteenth, which has been recognized in some form for 155 years, is the "oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States," according to Juneteenth.com.