Needham will observe Juneteenth National Independence Day with a ceremony on the Town Common beginning at 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 19. The federal holiday recognizing the end of slavery in the U.S. will be marked with a recitation of the Emancipation Proclamation, remarks and reflection.
Needham’s Select Board issued a proclamation June 9 outlining the holiday’s history and significance, read aloud by Select Board Vice Chair Joshua Levy during the meeting. Levy will be the host for the town’s commemoration.
Juneteenth, also termed “Freedom Day,” celebrates the delayed arrival of Union troops announcing freedom for enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865 — over two years after Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, making it the first public holiday to be legalized since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, signed in 1983.
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