Stone Soup Café

Juneteenth, an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War, has been celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s.

On June 19, 1865, about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln.

The holiday is also called “Juneteenth Independence Day,” “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.”

EVENT SCHEDULE for Greenfield's Juneteenth: from 12-5pm at Beacon Field

12pm: Tara Murphy and the drum circle
1pm: speakers (Mpress Bennu – CEO/President of Moving Mountains, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner – City of Greenfield, Tom Meshako – CEO/President of Greenfield Savings Bank, Jessye Deane – Executive Director of Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, Steve Rickman – Executive Director of Greenfield Girls Club)
2pm: MLK Charter School of Excellence
2:30pm: Greenfield Historical Society
3:00pm: Magician and Balloon Twister
3:45pm: Style FX
4:15pm: Strings for Kids
4:45pm: closing remarks

Food Vendors: Moving Mountains, Stone Soup Cafe, FCCMP, Hazel’s Kitchen, Hot Diggity Dawg, Just Roots