YELLOW SPRINGS — Communities around the Miami Valley celebrated Juneteenth.
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“Even if you’ve been here one year like me, or five years or 10 years ... there’s always something to learn,” Rena DeHenry said.
DeHenry is on a walking tour learning how Antioch College helped shape Coretta Scott King before she became a civil rights leader.
“I had no idea. I didn’t know til they handed me the pamphlet, and learning about her in school is really cool,” she said.
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Anitoch College is not just celebrating Juneteenth but also the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s commencement speech.
“That he gave on campus on June 19th, 1965. It’s pretty crazy to have such a strong piece of history happen right here on campus,” Dr. Queen Meccasia Zabriskie, director of the Coretta Scott King Center, said.
Juneteenth is the nation’s newest federal holiday since MLK Day in 1983.
It recognizes the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people found out they were free.
Throughout the afternoon, several events celebrated this freedom on campus and around Yellow Springs.
Organizers say this is how they’re bringing the community together.
“We can all experience the freedoms that we value so much and the rights we value so much in our country. This holiday is the perfect thing, right? And the perfect opportunity for us to come together around that,” Zabriske said.
A list of Juneteenth celebrations can be found here.
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