Celebration Commemorates the End of Slavery in the United States
and Years of Perseverance Through History and Culture
Historic Hosanna School Museum Hosts 7th Annual Upper Bay Juneteenth Festival
Darlington, MD – The Historic Hosanna School Museum will celebrate Juneteenth – a nationally recognized day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and celebrates African American history, culture, and achievement. This annual Upper Bay Juneteenth Festival is the longest-running Juneteenth celebration in the Lower Susquehanna and Upper Chesapeake Bay regions.
As part of this year’s celebration, there will be “edutainment” for the entire family with music (to include African drummers), dance, crafts, Buffalo Soldiers, a genealogy workshop, book signings, horse rides, a puppet show, lectures, vendors and other fun events. Food also will be available.
For details, and to register or make a donation, visit HosannaSchoolMuseum.org.
WHEN: Saturday, June 17, 2023, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Hosanna School Museum
2424 Castleton Road
Darlington, Maryland 21034
COST: $18.65 (in recognition of Juneteenth – June 19, 1865)
HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH:
Juneteenth is the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865 – two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation – Union General Gordon Granger announced the end of the war and read General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, which declared that the enslaved were free. The presence of few Union troops in Texas, one of the states that rebelled against the Union, made it difficult to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender in April 1865, along with General Granger’s regiment, provided the necessary influence needed to impose the mandate.
BACKGROUND:
Hosanna School Museum was the first of three Freedmen’s Bureau schoolhouses erected in Harford County, Md. The building was used as a school, community meeting place, and church. In 1879, Harford County School Commissioners assumed operation of the school and Hosanna remained an active schoolhouse for African American children until 1946. Currently, it is a living schoolhouse museum, attracting visitors from all over the country. The building is also available for community meetings or public and private events.