ATLANTIC CITY - Stockton University will host an event celebrating Black music and commemorating Juneteenth 5 p.m. Thursday, June 15, at the Atlantic City campus. Juneteenth is a federal holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
The event, A Pre-Juneteenth Celebration of Black Music, will feature music selections by Donnetrice DJ Mello-Dee Allison, chair of the Africana Studies program, games, food and prizes.
The celebration open to students, staff, faculty and community members will be held in the Fannie Lou Hamer Event Room in the John F. Scarpa Academic Center, 3711 Atlantic Ave. The event is sponsored by the Africana Studies program and School of Arts and Humanities,
According to the National Museum of African-American History & Culture of the Smithsonian Museum, many who were previously enslaved were liberated after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. However, there were around 250,000 enslaved African Americans who had yet to hear the news in the then-Confederate state of Texas. Freedom for those in Texas didn't come until June 19, 1865, when around 2,000 Union troops marched into Galveston Bay, Texas.
