A Brooklyn Juneteenth Tour: Downtown, Bed Stuy & the Weeksville Food Festival

Join us to Celebrate the Juneteenth Holiday Brooklyn-Style! RSVPs open Sunday, May 31st at 8pm. Space is set aside for new members and first and second timers who land on the waiting list. Email me at hankorenstein@gmail.com to request a spot. This tour is free with a voluntary donation to your leader at the end via cash, venmo or zelle. Please be fit to walk close to 4 miles (split over 2 different walking tours, subway ride in between). To Bring: Water to drink, hat for the sun, snacks. There will be an additional subway ride from Downtown Brooklyn to Bedford Stuyvesant. There will be abundant food for purchase at the Food Festival - estimated arrival time is 4:00pm (free admission). https://www.weeksvillesociety.org/event/5th-annual-juneteenth-food-festival/ TOUR OVERVIEW: ABOUT JUNETEENTH Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States which existed for well over half of this country's history going back to the 1600s. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th of that year that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free, two years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. On June 17, 2021 President Biden signed into law a bill making June 19th a federal holiday. In 2022 NYC Mayor Adams declared that Juneteenth will be a paid city holiday. As we recount the background of the Juneteenth holiday, we'll visit a number of historic sites in Brooklyn, which during part of the 19th century, essentially became sanctuary city in which blacks and whites played leaderships roles in combatting slavery sometimes at risk to their lives and livelihoods. Despite business interests tied to the South due to the production and processing of textiles and sugar, New York City became the most active city in the country in combatting slavery and in challenging the Fugitive Slave Act. This law,…