08/15/2026
✨250th Juneteenth Living History Celebration Recap✨
“We celebrated the shared cultural values of an inclusive Juneteenth experience with speakers, a gospel concert, traditional Native American dancers, African drummers and dancers, Colonial Regimental reenactors, activity for young adults and so much more,” said Charles Roberts, the event organizer, founder and executive director of RI Slave History Medallions (RISHM). “It was a complexly rewarding experience, an Act of Remembrance.”
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation — freeing the enslaved people of the Confederacy more than two years after the order had taken effect. For Rhode Islanders, the day also resonates with our own history: at the 1778 Battle of Rhode Island, colonial troops — among them the Black soldiers of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment — fought the British for the promise of American freedom.
