Starkville community gathers to celebrate Juneteenth

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — On the 19th of June in 1865, slaves in Texas finally learned that President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation two years prior — granting their freedom.

Juneteenth is the celebration of that freedom.

The Oktibbeha county NAACP and the J.L. King center have teamed up to host Starkville’s very first Juneteenth celebration.

It was a day that recognized freedom and a community spirit.

President of Oktibehha NAACP Yulanda Haddix said this is a great way to bring the community together.

“J.L. King and NAACP decided to do a partnership and we realized that it would be an unrest in our country, that we should do something positive,” said Haddix. “Starkville is such a positive and great place to be and we have such great comradery and we decided that we would do something positive.”

Even though the coronavirus has made it challenging to hold events, Director of the JL King Center

Latalla Harris said that they are following all of the guidelines to keep everyone safe.

“We are aware that COVID 19 has put a damper on a lot of things so we decided to put it in an area where everyone could spread out and still do social distancing,” said Harris.

Black artisans were featured, so was music and food trucks.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said its important to be unified as a community.

“Well I think it is a very supportive effort and that matter particularly right now so I think it is very positive and right now we have positive things and I think that’s one of the things and one of the messages that you can take from this and everybody is working to be very unified and very positive about how we are approaching our future and this is part of our future,” said Spruill.

Haddix said that they want everyone to feel equal.

“And even though we want to eliminate race-based discrimination, we want to make everyone feel welcomed,” said Haddix. “So today we celebrate African American freedom and we want the rest of the country to know that Starkville is still a great place to be.”

The J.L. King Center will be offering COVID-19 testing tomorrow from 12-4.