Around Town
Hundreds Attend S.T.A.R. Celebration of Juneteenth in New Canaan
|
The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center. One hundred fifty eight years ago, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, marking the end of slavery in the United States. On Monday, New Canaan residents came together to celebrate the milestone, making this the first Juneteenth celebration in New Canaan since the federal government and state of Connecticut made it a legal holiday. “This is amazing, we have at this point, almost 400 people have signed up to come, and last year we were at 160, so more than double,” Fatou Niang, founder and chair of Stand Together Against Racism, or “S.T.A.R.,” which organized the “Hearts of Freedom” Juneteenth celebration, as hundreds of town and area residents gathered at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society for live music, food and games on a hot summer day. “We are so blessed that the community is embracing it, and we hope every year to have more and more people to the point that we can move it to Waveny,” Niang said.
Monday’s event was the second-ever Juneteenth celebration in town.