Village Initiative celebrates Juneteenth in Williamsburg with music, parade, food and dance

WILLIAMSBURG — Horns were blown, drums were beaten, and freedom was celebrated Wednesday on the lawn of the Williamsburg Community Building in honor of Juneteenth. The federal holiday celebrates the news of emancipation reaching Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. There, the last officially enslaved people in the country found out they were free, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. “It’s a very important holiday, especially in the African diaspora,” said Lawrence Gholson II, president of the York-James City-Williamsburg branch of the NAACP, in an interview with...