Waltham Boys & Girls Club Hosting Juneteenth Celebration

WALTHAM, MA — Juneteenth is on Wednesday and the local Boys & Girls Club plans to celebrate.

Waltham Common will host a Juneteenth Celebration set to feature live music, performances, youth activities, food, vendors and more.

The event is scheduled from 12 to 4 p.m.

The Monday, June 19, national holiday commemorates the day in 1865, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, when word finally reached the last enslaved people in Texas that the Civil War had ended, and they were free.

Also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is the oldest-known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation making it a federal holiday, the first since the addition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.