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Juneteenth celebration to be held at Brandon Park

The Lycoming Tri-County NAACP, in collaboration with several other local groups, will be hosting a Juneteenth event Saturday, June 19 in Brandon Park.

“We celebrate our freedom, our diversity and just celebrate who we are,” Lycoming Tri-County NAACP Vice President Lisa Williams said.

The event, aptly themed “Celebrate Who We Are,” starts at 9 a.m. in the Freedom Road Cemetery. After a prayer at 9:15, participants plan on a peace walk to Brandon Park, where the rest of the festivities will take place starting at 10:30.

Mayor Derek Slaughter will speak at 11, and the keynote speaker will take the stage at 11:30. The keynote speaker is Adrian Miller, author of “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue.” Miller also served as a White House adviser under the Clinton administration.

The rest of the day will be filled with food and spoken-word performances until 5 p.m. There will be African-American vendors, tables displaying Black art, a Black history table and a genealogy table, Williams said.

The “one and done” Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will be offered to attendees as well, Williams said.

This event will also honor ancestors and celebrate inclusivity.

Williams stressed that the NAACP is a racially inclusive organization, and that the group and the Juneteenth celebration are open to everybody.

“Juneteenth commemorates the day two and a half years after Emancipation went into effect when news of the end of the Civil War and the end of chattel slavery finally reached Galveston, Texas, in summer 1865,” according to the Lycoming Tri-County NAACP website, naacptricounty.wordpress.com

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