Juneteenth Celebrations In Middlesex Co. On Wednesday

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ – Middlesex County will celebrate Juneteenth on Wednesday with a flag-raising ceremony and community celebration in New Brunswick.

The flag-raising ceremony will take place at 1 pm at 75 Bayard Street in front of the Middlesex County Administration Building.

The event presents an opportunity to learn about the origins of this important holiday and how it came to be. Listen to the stories of those who played a pivotal role in getting Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday.

A community celebration will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in front of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

There will be music, art, entertainment and more.

The event is presented by New Brunswick Area NAACP and New Brunswick Cultural Center at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

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.