COLORADO SPRINGS — Events commemorating Juneteenth took place all over the country on Friday, including here in Colorado Springs.
Juneteenth is the day recognized as when slavery ended in the United States, when troops traveled to Texas to tell slaves in Galveston the Union had won the war. This happened more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
This year, Juneteenth came in the midst of George Floyd protests across the country, where people have been standing in solidarity on issues like police brutality and systemic racism in America. Those who gathered at Acacia Park said there is still a lot of work to be done. "They just took it from you know, being black you're a slave, now it's if you're a criminal or an inmate you're a slave... There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, and there's still a lot of corruption that needs to be flushed out of the system," said Derrick Matthews, one of the people at Acacia Park.
Many also said Juneteenth should be a taught in schools. "I wasn't taught in school, which definitely shows a lot, but this is something I had to seek out and learn about myself... Good or bad, parts of our history, you can't bury history," said Brent, another one of the people who came out to Acacia Park.
Those at the park also said it's important to remember our history when dealing with the modern intricacies of race relations in the country. "It is really, really important to remember those things that happened because without that memory and that pain, there would be no motivation or reason behind what we're doing," said David Burke, one of the people who has been at the George Floyd demonstrations.
The celebration at Acacia Park lasted from around 12 on Friday, to about 10 that evening.
