Juneteenth is an opportunity to celebrate African American freedom and accomplishments as well as the chance to grow personally by gaining respect for all cultures.
Clarion University will celebrate Juneteenth at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 18, in Hart Chapel with keynote speaker Daniel Parker, who is the administrator of the Clarion County Library System and the executive director of the Clarion Free Library. Following the keynote speaker, a free lunch will be served.
“I’m thrilled to be the Juneteenth speaker,” Parker said.
Parker said he’s been coming to Juneteenth since his arrival in Clarion four years ago. “I think it’s one of the premier opportunities to celebrate multiculturalism in Clarion. We are different, but we also are the same.”
Parker plans to address the issue of how the digital divide among minority groups and the working poor leads to limited opportunities. He said he’s seen this firsthand through his work in the library system.
Juneteenth began in Texas. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued Jan. 1, 1863, but slaves in Texas didn't receive word of their freedom until two-and-a-half years later, on June 19, 1865. Upon hearing the news, they immediately took a day off.
Dr. Brenda Dédé, Clarion's associate vice president for academic and student affairs, brought Juneteenth to the university in 2003 after a discussion with Lt. Col. Charles Moss, who works for Vision Quest, a facility for detained youth in Franklin. He inquired about the university's Juneteenth celebration, and Dédé replied that the event hadn't yet been observed at Clarion University. She set out to begin the tradition.
“For me it (Juneteenth) is the statement made of others and the powers-that-be that black people have been and were mistreated,” Dédé said. “Historically, in the United States, people are trying to come together as one to recognize people’s differences.”
Dédé said the Clarion community has come to look forward to the event during the past 13 years.
For Dédé, the message of Juneteenth is simple: We need to treat others as equals. Dédé said this message is important with the issues of police brutality being brought to light in other cities around the country.
Over the years, the Juneteenth celebration has waxed and waned. In 1980, Texas legislator Al Edwards rejuvenated the observance, working to have it declared a legal holiday in Texas. Since then, the observation has expanded into most of the United States, including Pennsylvania, where it is observed but is not a legal holiday.
“It is growing,” Dédé said of Juneteenth celebrations across the country.
Juneteenth is sponsored by: Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion University African American Caucus, Clarion University NAACP Student Chapter and Clarion Chamber of Business and Industry.