VEMA Hosts Sixth Annual Iron Range Juneteenth Event
Virginia, Minn. – The booming voice of Eli Little, lead singer of the Easy Liv’n Blues Band and popular 5th-grade teacher at the nearby North Star Elementary School, filled Chestnut Street in Virginia on Friday afternoon. Virginia’s Main Street was closed off on Friday to celebrate the county’s newest federal holiday, Juneteenth, which was signed into law on June 17, 2021.
Friday marked the sixth annual Juneteenth celebration on the Iron Range with events and programming hosted by VEMA (Voices for the Ethnic and Multicultural Awareness), a community and family Resource Center based in Chisholm. VEMA works to bridge cultural gaps on the Iron Range, serving as a space for education and social support, as well as a regional resource center that assists with housing and nutrition, and provides advocacy services to those experiencing racial and societal injustice.
The Juneteenth celebration on Friday, however, was a time for celebration. According to Executive Director Nathaniel Coward, the Juneteenth event is a time to bring communities and people of all races together. Coward emphasized that the festival, featuring live music, a huge selection of ethnic and comfort foods, games, kids’ activities, and educational opportunities for the community, was open and welcoming to everyone.
Jay Jackson, a celebration host and one of the founding members of VEMA, spoke about how events like Juneteenth are vital in helping to bridge understanding and acceptance among people from different backgrounds and experiences and in helping to tie the community together. For emphasis, Jackson, at one point, assembled guests from the crowd of several different ethnic backgrounds and brought them on stage together as a clear demonstration of unity.
Juneteenth, a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” is a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and specifically celebrates the day in 1865 when Union troops, led by Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and read General Orders No. 3 to inform the 250,000 enslaved African Americans that they were free; more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
Formerly enslaved people in Texas organized the first official “Emancipation Day” on June 19, 1866, and the tradition spread across the country.
Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980, following decades of advocacy. The day became an official Federal Holiday when President Joe Biden signed legislation on June 17, 2021, recognizing Juneteenth. The holiday has been celebrated on the Range through festivals held in Chisholm and the Minnesota Discovery Center, in addition to the downtown Virginia celebrations, for the past six years.
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