AF-Jackson Juneteenth Day of Action

Juneteenth is oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery. Join us as we mark this day of freedom at the Annual Juneteenth Festival.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers landed at Galveston, TX to announce that the war had ended and that all slaves in the rebelling states were now free. Juneteenth serves as a historical milestone reminding Americans of the triumph of the human spirit over the cruelty of oppression and slavery. It also allows us time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going as a nation.

Join us as we celebrate this special day in the historic Farish Street District.

Farish Street Historic District is located in Jackson, Mississippi, known as a hub for Black-owned businesses up until the 1970s. Named after a family that lived and had businesses on that street for four generations, the street became a flourishing business area after the imposition of legal segregation under Jim Crow. As the black community thrived, by 1908 one third of the area of Jackson was black-owned, one third of the houses where Blacks lived were black-owned, and half of black families owned their own homes. In 1915 the Farish Street neighborhood was well known as a successful thriving area in Jackson. Farish Street was home to Trumpet Records, Ace Records, and Speir Phonograph Company. Jackson State University, an HBCU, was located at the corner of Farish and Griffith for about a year until it moved to its new location.

The Farish Street neighborhood was added as a historic district to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The neighborhood is historically significant as an economically independent black community, and as of 1980 was the largest such community in Mississippi. Most of the properties in the district were built between 1890 and 1930