The official holiday is June 19th, but on Saturday, the Ann Arbor NAACP kicks off their Juneteenth celebrations with the 31st Community Unity Walk to Wheeler Park.
First observed in Ann Arbor on June 18, 1994, Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in America. Officially declared a holiday in 2021 by former President Joe Biden, Washtenaw County will observe the occasion with multiple events leading up to next Thursday’s official celebration.
Mary Hall-Tiam is the political action chair for the Ann Arbor branch of the NAACP. She says Saturday’s Unity Walk will begin at Fuller Park.
“And then, we will march to Wheeler Park. It’s about a one-mile walk, and it is through some of the historically African American neighborhoods here in Ann Arbor.”
Hall-Tiam says the daughter and grandson of former Ann Arbor Mayor, Dr. Albert Wheeler, will deliver a “living history” connecting civil rights and the civil war of the 1860’s to what African Americans still face today.
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