Juneteenth Celebration begins Friday evening at Attucks Park and Community Center

The three-day Juneteenth Celebration begins at 7 p.m. Friday at Attucks Park and Community Center, 1001 South 12th Street.

The celebration starts with a free movie and hot dogs or nachos. At 8 p.m. ADAM & KIZZIE will play at Attucks Park. Bring lawn chairs. Ponca City Arts and Humanities Council will host Adam & Kizzie and their band. Drinks and food will be sold by the Attucks Alliance.

On Saturday, events begin at 10:30 a.m. with a bouncy house, kids’ corner games and  more

A free lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. At 1 p.m., there will be Kids Bingo for ages 12 and younger. 

Adult games will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Those games include horseshoes, card games and dominos.

The kids’ games  continue and at 2:30 p.m., Bingo switches for those 13 and older.

Saturday evening there will be Music in the Park from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., and there’s a movie at 8 p.m. in the Attucks Community Center.

A community church service is at 10:45 a.m. on Sunday. Bishop Johnny Thompson, Pastor of Powerhouse of Faith, will lead the service.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the 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.

This was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official Jan. 1, 1863.