Juneteenth celebration starts with flag raising at Philadelphia City Hall

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The Juneteenth flag now flies outside City Hall following a flag-raising ceremony Monday morning that doubled as a history lesson on slavery in the United States.

President and CEO of the National Comprehensive Center for Fathers, Kofi Asante, spoke about the significance of June 19, 1865 — the day a community of enslaved people in Texas learned they’d been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

“Many of our ancestors have made so many sacrifices, those sacrifices should not be gone unnoticed,” Asante said.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier spoke of the recently constituted committee to research reparations for Philadelphia descendants of those held in slavery.

“To find ways to make descendants of slaves whole after centuries of discrimination,” she said. “In this sense, Juneteenth isn’t just a celebration of the end of slavery in our country. It’s a reminder of all of the work that remains undone to this day.”

Mark Harrell is chairman of the board for the Philadelphia Juneteenth celebration. He explained the importance of flying the special flag.

“The bursting star in the middle is a symbolic representation of the end of slavery in the United States. The white star in the center of the flag has a double meaning. It represents Texas, the Lone Star State,” Harrell said. “It was in Galveston in 1865 where Union soldiers informed the country’s last remaining enslaved people that under the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were now free.”

Gwen Ragsdale of the Lest We Forget Museum of Slavery in Philadelphia held up a pair of shackles and described in graphic detail the pain those held in slavery experienced as they were transported while locked at the ankle.

“This item was used on enslaved males. Now, they rarely had enough for all of those men that they put on the bottom of the ships, so one wrung would come off and go around the ankle of one enslaved male, the other wrung will go around the ankle of another enslaved male and they’d be locked in.”

She said those shackles would rub the skin and regularly cause infections.

The Juneteenth events begin June 8 with the Miss Juneteenth competition at the National Constitution Center leading up to the Juneteenth parade and festival on Sunday, June 16. That Sunday will also feature an “Art in the Park” event at Malcolm X Park (5100 Pine St.).