On Saturday, June 15, the Fairbanks Community celebrated Juneteenth with a festival at Bernice Allridge Park.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - On Saturday, June 15 , the Fairbanks community celebrated Juneteenth , at Bernice Allridge Park .
Each year this event is celebrated across the country including Fairbanks. “This is a community event and when we can get the community together just to say hey let’s celebrate - that’s a wonderful thing,” said Carlene Tillery, the vice president of the Fairbanks Branch NAACP . To start the festivities, soldiers from the 11th Air Borne Division presented the colors while Willa Watts sang the national anthem. Prayers were also recited and Watts returned to the stage once more to sing the negro national anthem, Lift Every Voice. Closing the ceremony, former Fairbanks mayor Jim Matherly read a proclamation from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, recognizing Juneteenth in Alaska.
While Alaska had yet to be purchased from Russia by the United States in 1865, that purchase occurring in 1867, the Fairbanks community has been celebrating the day for decades. “We’ve been celebrating Juneteenth in this community since the seventies, since I was a little kid coming up,” said Colbert.
Juneteenth President Joe Biden President Abraham Lincoln Civil War Confederate States Of America Union Alaska Fairbanks Bernice Allridge Park Soldiers Bennie Colbert Carlene Tillery Fairbanks Branch NAACP National Association For The Advancement Of Colore Wilson Street June 15 June 19
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