STARKVILLE, Miss.—Messages of hope, history, freedom and celebration rang throughout Starkville for six days as residents celebrated Juneteenth.
The first Juneteenth celebration happened on June 19, 1866, Juneteenth Committee for Unity Vice President Yulanda Haddix told about 20 people who had gathered for an evening of prayer in Unity Park on June 14.
She told the history of Juneteenth, which started with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that declared over three million enslaved people in Confederate states to be freed. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, announcing the end of slavery to its Black residents. Union troops had already arrived in Columbus, Miss., a month earlier on May 8, 1865, freeing the enslaved people of the town. Columbus residents still honor May 8 as Emancipation Day.
President Joe Biden signed a law designating June 19 as the Juneteenth federal holiday in 2021. StarkVegas Juneteenth committee founder Frank Nichols said coincidentally, he and his wife Tammie Nichols held a jazz festival in Starkville that same day for residents to gather and listen to music.
“Just coincidentally, we did it on June 19, which is Juneteenth, which had never been celebrated here in Starkville, not citywide,” Frank Nichols told the Mississippi Free Press.
After the jazz festival, Oktibbeha County NAACP President Haddix approached him with an idea to host multiple events for Juneteenth in the following year. The Nicholses and Haddix formed the StarkVegas Juneteenth Committee for Unity in 2021 to share Black history and culture with all people.
In 2022, the committee held five days of Juneteenth events, including jazz, soul and gospel festivals, as well as events like a barbecue contest and a cigar social.
“We definitely kind of wanted to bridge that gap and bring everybody together in this very diverse community,” said Frank Nichols, who was Starkville’s police chief from 2014-2019.
This year, the Juneteenth committee had a six-day-long roster with all three festivals returning alongside a variety of events.
Encouraged, Not Complacent
An evening of prayer kicked off the celebration, with Juneteenth committee members, local officials and residents speaking to an audience
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