The county will close its facilities Monday, and held a ceremony Friday when officials raised a Juneteenth flag over the county center
The Juneteenth flag flew over the San Diego County Administration Center Friday, as all county facilities and offices prepared to close Monday in celebration of the holiday marking the end of slavery., celebrated on June 19, marks the emancipation of enslaved Black people in Texas, the westernmost state in the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation liberated enslaved people in Confederate states in 1863, but that edict wasn’t enforced in Texas until two and a half years later.
On Friday, county officials and community leaders raised the Juneteenth flag alongside the American and California flags at the county center.“Black people have celebrated Juneteenth for years,” said Vanessa Green, a manager with the county’s office of Office of Equity and Racial Justice. “It’s to honor African Americans in the face of continued gender and racial inequity.”
San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher said the holiday is both a celebration of Black accomplishments and a promise to redress continued injustice. He pointed to disparate health outcomes, life expectancy and economic status between Black and White Americans as evidence of lingering racial divides.
He said the county has taken steps to combat racial injustice through programs to resolve homelessness, reform criminal justice procedures and revamp systems for treating mental illness, all considering the disproportionate impact of those problems on Black communities. The Juneteenth celebration isn’t a solution in itself, but a recognition of the effort needed to achieve racial justice, he said.
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