4th Annual Juneteenth Celebration In Metuchen On Saturday

METUCHEN, NJ —The Metuchen Human Relations Commission will host the 4th Annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, 5 - 7 p.m. at the Metuchen Downtown Plaza.

The event will feature a lineup of talented performers, headlined by DJ Sabine Blaizin, whose recent performances included the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art's 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Learn about this important holiday and enjoy performances from drumline, step-dancers, spoken word, funk band, and more.

The Wednesday, June 19, federal 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.