Skokie To Officially Observe Juneteenth As Holiday For The First Time
Skokie To Officially Observe Juneteenth As Holiday For The First Time

Skokie To Officially Observe Juneteenth As Holiday For The First Time

SKOKIE, IL — For the first time, Juneteenth will be an official village holiday in Skokie next week.

Monday marks the first time June 19 has fallen on a weekday since Juneteenth was declared an official state and federal holiday in 2021.

Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 that U.S. Maj. Gen. Gorgon Granger legally freed the rebellion’s last enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, where he announced the Emancipation Proclamation — two and a half years after it was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

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In Skokie, a community Juneteenth celebration is scheduled for Saturday at Oakton Park. The event is sponsored by the village, the Skokie Public Library, the Skokie Park District, Skokie Morton Grove School District 69, Niles Township High School District 219 and the local nonprofit Skokie United.

With a theme of “Love, Liberation, Life,” the family-friendly free all-day event will feature music, food and community resources.

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The celebration begins at 1 p.m. with an African drum performance, is set to feature a Juneteenth proclamation by Village Trustee Keith Robinson, the first Black person elected to the Skokie Village Board, and a keynote address from YWCA Evanston/North Shore CEO Cherese Ledet.

A full schedule of performances is available online.

“[I]n 1961 the first African American family purchased a home in the Village of Skokie,” according to the mayoral proclamation declaring Monday as Juneteenth, “and their courage and perseverance, as well as the establishment of the Skokie Human Relations Commission in 1961 and the passage of the first Fair Housing Ordinance in 1968, paved the way for thousands of Black residents of African American and diverse ethnic cultures who currently call Skokie home.”

According to U.S. Census data, nearly 9 percent of Skokie’s more than 65,000 residents identify as Black or African American.

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On Monday, Village Hall will be closed, and refuse collection scheduled for Monday and Tuesday will be pushed back one day. Yard waste collection will take place June 24.

While the law making Juneteenth a federal holiday provides for workers to take off the Monday following June 19 if the holiday falls on a weekend, the 2021 law signed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker only allows state workers to take a paid day off when the 19th falls on a weekday.


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