Rio Rancho's Juneteenth celebration set for June 22

The city of Rio Rancho once again will host a Juneteenth Freedom Day celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 22 at Haynes Park.

The event is free to the public and will feature food trucks, activities, health screenings and music. There will also be vendor booths and community services booths on hand for event attendees to purchase goods and receive information about health care and other community/social services.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger issued General’s Orders Number 3 in Galveston, Texas, to ensure that all enslaved people would be freed. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation being signed two and a half years earlier, Black people were still being held as slaves in Texas. Following the Civil War, the Union Army was sent to ensure that all people, in every state, would be free. Communities throughout the United States have continued to celebrate Juneteenth. Texas became the first state to name Juneteenth as an official holiday in 1979 and on June 17, 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day was made a federal holiday.

Amina Everett, who is running for state Senate in November, has done volunteer work with the United Way, been the treasurer for the Rio Rancho branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and graduated from the Rio Rancho Citizens Police Academy.

“I know that a lot of us did not have this in school. We weren’t educated, and it’s something that is a critical part of our American history,” Everett said. “It’s now an official federal holiday. Juneteenth National Independence Day. It’s also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee day and Black Independence Day. It is the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. This order was critical to expanding freedom to enslaved people. It foreshadowed the fight for equal rights to come.”