The 2018 Doña Ana County NAACP celebration of
Juneteenth was a commemoration to be remembered.
Source: Las Cruces Sun News
Both Photo Credit:
KYork Photography
Derrick Johnson, the national president of NAACP
attended the annual Juneteenth banquet to recog-
nize the importance of the holiday traditionally
celebrated on June 19.
Juneteenth, also known as Independence Day or
Freedom Day, celebrates the time frame when
people west of the Mississippi found out about the
liberation of African-American slaves after the Civil
War.“It was a whole two years before the notice of the Proclamation Eman-
cipation made its way across the Mississippi River to Texas. It was at that
time in June that people began to celebrate. Now, was it the 10th? Or the
19th? We are not for sure so, we say the Juneteenth,” Johnson said during
Saturday's banquet at Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces.
The county NAACP's two-day celebration started Friday at the Rio Grande
Theatre, where attendees got to witness a multicultural experience of mari-
achi and gospel music. At Saturday's banquet, Mayor Ken Miyagishima and
State Sen. Howie Morales (in attendance) and U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and
Martin Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (in absentia) welcomed
Johnson to New Mexico.