Seacoast Online Article, June 11, 2017: Juneteenth celebration highlights Black Heritage Trail of NH
PORTSMOUTH — Next Saturday, the Seacoast’s African American community will celebrate Juneteenth — a holiday commemorating the day on June 19, 1865, when slavery was finally abolished in what was then the backwater of Texas three months after the end of the Civil War. It is a day of celebration throughout the country, a time to commemorate the end of slavery and rejoice in freedom.
Juneteenth has long been an honored tradition in Portsmouth, with people coming together in song and spirit and storytelling to mark this keystone moment in the black community. But there is extra reason to celebrate this June. The year 2017 marks the start of a new chapter in the ever-unfolding, mostly obscure saga of New Hampshire’s African American history. It is the year of the founding of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. [READ MORE]
