Saturday, June 20^th marked Vallejo’s 21^st annual Juneteenth celebration. In all of my nine years living in the city, this was my first year truly participating in the event. I had, on past occasions, walked through, stopped to listen to music, said hello to acquaintances and moved on to other destinations. But this time, I was the featured author at the Chatmon’s Bookstore booth. For anyone reading this blog, I have written one book entitled Shades of Retribution.

The day started out slow but by about three o’clock a crowd had gathered to hear the singers, socialize and patronize local vendors. Although the day turned out to be fairly windy, the weather was perfect and I took several opportunities to sit back and enjoy the festivities between signing books.

During the course of explaining how I spent my weekend to co-workers I realized that many people do not know about Juneteenth. I also realized that I almost had some difficulty in adequately explaining its meaning myself, so here’s what I learned while digging a little deeper into its meaning.

Juneteenth (a combination of June and Nineteenth) marks the announcement of the emancipation of African-American slaves in Texas in 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in September of 1862, but it took the nearly three years for news and enforcement of the proclamation to reach the region since it was still under Confederate control.

Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas and has since been made a state holiday (or state holiday observance) in 31 of the United States according to Wikipedia ( I’m sure by now you can tell that I love Wikipedia). These states include the District of Columbia, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Although several Juneteenth celebrations could be found throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, it means a lot to me that I didn’t have to leave Vallejo to find one, and a good one at that. I have to admit that the sparse crowd at noon worried me a little, but the day turned out to be one for me to remember. Partly because the time I have to spend in Vallejo since I’ve been commuting to San Francisco has dwindled over the past couple of years, but also because despite its problems, I do believe that Vallejo residents are still firmly committed to community.

One of my favorite vendors, Thelma’s African Connection, was present at the festivities. Thelma Brown is a highly underrated source of fashion and distinctive décor in Vallejo. Her boutique is situated on Georgia Street above Sonoma Boulevard on the right side of the street. Not only is she a nice person, she takes her time to choose fashions, imports, and novelties from all over the United States and Africa. I often wear jewelry and handbags from her shop and never fail to receive compliments. Visitors to my home are often taken with the African masks and want to know where I have purchased them. The image on this blog entry is a sampling of her offerings.

The Juneteenth celebration was held in MLK Jr. Park behind JFK Library. The Northern California Pirate Festival was held simultaneously across the way at the Vallejo Waterfront, and it was nice to see pirates checking out the festivities and purchasing food from Juneteenth vendors as well. Overall it was a nice event and I sincerely hope that the city of Vallejo works to support and retain this event. Juneteenth celebration is just another way in which Vallejo shows its diversity and all nationalities would benefit from taking part in the festivities.