- April 5, 2025
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The Heavenly Warriors perform during the celebration. Photo by Paige Wilson
Brenda Andrews pours water out to honor ancestors as the crowd shouts out names. Photo by Paige Wilson
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church adult liturgical dancers perform "Usher's Praise." Photo by Paige Wilson
Yvette Bynum,Hermione McLemore and Joe Hamilton preform the Negro National Anthem. Photo by Paige Wilson
AAACS President Joseph Mathews reads the proclamation in the absence of Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland. Photo by Paige Wilson
Evangelist Robin Campos, of Palm Coast, gets into the music and starts to play the tambourine in the crowd. Photo by Paige Wilson
The Palm Coast United Methodist Church gospel choir performs at the celebration. Photo by Paige Wilson
Audience members show their enthusiasm during performances by singing and clapping along to the songs. Photo by Paige Wilson
Anthony Felton reads the Juneteenth Observance. Photo by Paige Wilson
The Heavenly Warriors perform during the celebration. Photo by Paige Wilson
The African American Cultural Society building at 4422 N. U.S. 1 is packed with people for the Juneteenth celebration. Photo by Paige Wilson
As members of the crowd gathered at the African American Cultural Society shouted out names of their ancestors, Brenda Andrews poured out water from a pitcher into a bowl, honoring each name. In unison, the audience responded by saying “namaste” and “asante.” Andrews called the libation a salute to divinity.
“The DNA is not just the color of our skin, the texture of our hair, the color of our eyes,” Andrews said. “The DNA that’s in us — that’s defined in us from one generation to the other — is the DNA of not overcomers but of people who are victorious in everything that we do. I want you to think about your grandparents, your great-great-grandparents — all the people that we are standing on their shoulders today. How they had to suffer, but yet they succeeded — because we are here. Well, that’s what libations are all about.”
About 200 people filled the African American Cultural Society on Saturday, June 16, for the annual Juneteenth celebration, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.
The holiday is officially observed on June 19, as it was that day in 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger led soldiers to Galveston, Texas and declared the end of the Civil War, launching freedom of enslaved people. This was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official Jan. 1, 1863.
At the AACS located at 4422 N. U.S. 1, the history of Juneteenth was shared to a packed room. The lively crowd clapped and sang along to praise songs performed by the Palm Coast United Methodist gospel choir and the “Heavenly Warriors.” LaToya McCray and Clayton Beauford performed spoken word pieces, Anthony Felton read the Juneteenth Observance, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church adult liturgical dancers performed, and AACS President Joseph Mathews read a proclamation that was sent over by Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland.
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