JUNETEENTH CELEBRATED FOR THE
FIRST TIME IN EAST HAMPTON

2022 marks the first time Juneteenth, June 19, was observed in East Hampton Village in Herrick Park. Now a federal holiday, Juneteenth commemorates the date in 1865 when the last enslaved people in Texas, the last state of the Confederacy with institutional slavery, were freed.

Guest speakers spoke passionately about the need for racial unity in America, notably keynote speaker Lewis Brogdon, an associate professor and director of the Institute for Black Church Studies at Baptist Seminary of Louisville, Kentucky. The event was organized by East Hampton Chief of Police Michael Tracey.

Other speakers at this powerful and joyful celebration included the Rev. Dr. Walter S. Thompson Jr. of Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton; Arthurine Dunn, chairwoman of the English Department at East Hampton High School; Hugh King, the director of the Home, Sweet Home Museum and town and village historian, with representatives of the Plain Sight Project. Inga Williams and Dorothy Jackson were the event’s featured singers. East Hampton Baptist Calvary Church and the Village of East Hampton were the event’s hosts.