LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
It is a holiday most people don't typically recognize, but "Juneteenth" signaled the true end of slavery. Tuesday night, it was about celebrating the past and present in downtown Las Vegas, while looking ahead to the future.
"(We're) celebrating ancestors, celebrating freedom, celebrating economics," said Diane Pollard, founder and CEO of Las Vegas Juneteenth Foundation.
The yearly celebration marks the day, 147 years ago, when Union General Gordon Granger told slaves in Galveston, TX, that they were free.
"We're celebrating the end of slavery in 1865," Pollard said.
The Juneteenth celebration was held outside the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and is about bringing people together of all races and beliefs, to mark an important day in American history.
It is also a symbol of how far the nation has come, and its people. Exie Seastrunk is part of a family of 10. She came to Las Vegas when she was 16 years old, looking for a better life.
"When we were in Louisiana, my parents were never allowed to vote," Seastrunk said. "We came out here during that time and it has an extra-personal meaning to me."
Amid the sound of music and singing, companies offered job opportunities, colleges offered an education, and Synthia Saint James offered her art. Few know that she created the first Kwanzaa stamp for the United States Postal Service. And what she wants - more than fame or fortune, is for future generations to understand that June 19 is not just another day.
"Many African Americans don't even know about it and it's so much more important than any other holiday because it's about the last of the slaves being set free," Saint James said.
The Las Vegas event, now in its 12th year, was sold out.
The historic day on June 19, 1865 came nearly 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation officially ended slavery.
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