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Almost a month after the senseless shooting deaths of 1-year-old Marcus White Jr., who was killed at an East Hills community picnic with his aunts; 16-year-old Delasia Detrieuille, who was killed in a housing complex when confronting two boys who allegedly had robbed her of a gun she was trying to sell earlier in the day; and John Haas, a jitney driver who was killed while picking up a charge in a McKeesport housing complex because his vehicle was mistaken for a rival gang member’s, the community will come together to take a stand against the acceptance of senseless violence in their neighborhoods at Pittsburgh’s Juneteenth Stop the Violence & Community Awareness Event on June 29 at Stage AE from 1-4 p.m.
Sewickley held its 3rd Annual Juneteenth “Free to be Me” celebration at the Sewickley Community Center. Juneteenth, known as Freedom Day, commemorates the events that took place on June 18, 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the confederate state and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. HISTORY PRESENTATION—Marlene Bransom, president of the Afro-American Genealogy and Historical Society, gives a presentation at the event. (Photo by Nikki Coffee Denton)HISTORY PRESENTATION—Marlene Bransom, president of the Afro-American Genealogy and Historical Society, gives a presentation at the event. (Photo by Nikki Coffee Denton) On June 19, 1865, Gen. Gordon Granger read the contents of General Order No. 3 on the steps of Ashton Villa informing the people of Texas that all slaves were to be freed. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 it could not be enforced until the war was won by the North. As each southern state failed to the northern forces slaves were freed, with Texas believed to be the last. General Robert E. Lee, head of the southern army, surrendered on April 1865.
