MUW invited area residents to help celebrate Juneteenth

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi University for Women invited area residents to help celebrate Juneteenth.

The W hosted a program at Fant Memorial Library to observe the holiday.

Library staff have set up an exhibit in the main lobby, and Dean of Library Services, Amanda Powers, is spearheading an effort to collect oral histories of people’s Juneteenth memories.

Juneteenth was made a Federal holiday last year, but in Lowndes County residents have been commemorating it for 25 years, and local organizers are working to make it a State holiday.

“We are having this conversation about wanting to start an effort to see whether we can get Juneteenth as a state holiday. I have talked to Representative Kabir Karriem. We are going to sit down along with my group, and we are going to decide what approach and we are going to try to make it staewide, that next year it will be a state holiday,” said Leroy Brooks, Juneteenth Organizer.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed an Executive Order making Juneteenth a state holiday this year. The legislature will have to vote to make it permanent.