Fort Pierce - Friday June 16, 2022: Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson, Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney, and other city leaders led the Juneteenth Peace Walk Friday morning. Several hundred people, mostly school age children, and their adult supervisors took part. They gathered at 9 a.m. at 29th and Ave. Q and walked over to Lincoln Park for prayers and remarks.
The Peace Walk was the first of a number of events marking the city's 22nd Annual Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom. It commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. 159 years ago.
Juneteenth has been celebrated in various parts of the United States since 1865, but it only became a federal holiday last year when, on June 19 2021, President Joe Biden signed the legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
June 19 falls on a Sunday this year so most Federal employees will get Monday off. All federal government offices, federal courts, banks, post offices, schools, and the U.S. financial markets will be closed Monday June 20.
Juneteenth commemorates the day of June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger informed the residents of Galveston, Texas that all the slaves in their community had been freed two and half years earlier in accordance with President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which took effect January 1, 1863.
Juneteenth events in Fort Pierce:
* Friday June 17 - The Juneteenth Peace Walk: From 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Line-up begins at 8:30 a.m. on the Corner of 29th and Ave. Q in Fort Pierce. The walk starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 13th St. and Ave. O.
* Friday June 17th - The Freedom Block Party: From 5pm until 10pm. Bring the family out to the Incubate Neighborhood Center (INC) in Fort Pierce for the Freedom Block Party celebration in honor of Juneteenth. The Incubate Neighborhood Center is located at 532 North 13th Street in Fort Pierce.
• Saturday June 18 - The Community Celebration of Freedom: From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Park Community Center, 1306 Ave. M, in Fort Pierce
• Sunday June 19 - Prayer in the Park: From 1 to 1:19 p.m. at Dreamland Park, 301 S. 25th St., in Fort Pierce
End of Slavery Timeline
The Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, 1863, but it didn't free all the slaves, just the slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the Federal Government. News of the proclamation didn't reach Galveston Texas until June 19, 1865 – two and a half years later.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which finally outlawed the institution of slavery throughout the country, was passed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 1864, and then by the U.S. House of Representatives on January 31, 1865.
It took nearly 12 months to be ratified by the required three-fourths of states then in existence. That did not happen until December 6, 1865, after Georgia became the deciding 27th of the 36 states to ratify it. The ratification came eight months after the end of the Civil War.
The 13th Amendment was finally proclaimed a few weeks later on December 18, 1865, nearly six months after news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the residents and slaves of Galveston Texas.
The first 27 states to ratify the Amendment were:
1. Illinois: February 1, 1865
2. Rhode Island: February 2, 1865
3. Michigan: February 3, 1865
4. Maryland: February 3, 1865
5. New York: February 3, 1865
6. Pennsylvania: February 3, 1865
7. West Virginia: February 3, 1865
8. Missouri: February 6, 1865
9. Maine: February 7, 1865
10. Kansas: February 7, 1865
11. Massachusetts: February 7, 1865
12. Virginia: February 9, 1865
13. Ohio: February 10, 1865
14. Indiana: February 13, 1865
15. Nevada: February 16, 1865
16. Louisiana: February 17, 1865
17. Minnesota: February 23, 1865
18. Wisconsin: February 24, 1865
19. Vermont: March 9, 1865
20. Tennessee: April 7, 1865
21. Arkansas: April 14, 1865
22. Connecticut: May 4, 1865
23. New Hampshire: July 1, 1865
24. South Carolina: November 13, 1865
25. Alabama: December 2, 1865
26. North Carolina: December 4, 1865
27. Georgia: December 6, 1865
The Thirteenth Amendment was subsequently ratified by the other states, as follows:
28. Oregon: December 8, 1865
29. California: December 19, 1865
30. Florida: December 28, 1865 (reaffirmed June 9, 1868)
31. Iowa: January 15, 1866
32. New Jersey: January 23, 1866 (after rejection March 16, 1865)
33. Texas: February 18, 1870
34. Delaware: February 12, 1901 (after rejection February 8, 1865)
35. Kentucky: March 18, 1976 (after rejection February 24, 1865)
36. Mississippi: March 16, 1995; certified February 7, 2013 (after rejection December 5, 1865)