On June 19, 1865, two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender in Virginia, Union General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and enforce President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
General Granger read General Order No. 3, stating: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
That monumental day in U.S. history has became known as “Juneteenth,” and today, continues to commemorate and celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth transcends racial lines, ethnic differences, and generational divides to give all Americans an opportunity to understand and learn from our country’s history and to celebrate freedom for all people.
Right in the heart of downtown Little Rock stands the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a historic landmark, museum, and educational forum that collects, protects, and shares the accomplishments of black Arkansans. For the past six years, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center has hosted the city’s only large-scale Juneteenth observance, a daylong Celebration of Freedom.
The annual Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom block party-style event is free and open to the public, and it has something for everyone—live music, children’s activities, food trucks, and a bazaar of booths and vendors selling clothes, jewelry, and more! This year’s event is Saturday, June 18, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
During the Celebration of Freedom, the galleries at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will be open for the public to enjoy—including the African American Treasures from The Kinsey Collection, an exhibition of heirlooms, artifacts, documents, books, and art dating back nearly 400 years to trace the influence African Americans had in our country’s earliest beginnings, telling a more complete story of the black experience in America.
Shirley and Bernard Kinsey began collecting forty years ago. What started out as a personal assortment of African-American art has amassed a into an immense collection of authentic and rare pieces of African-American history, such as:
- A 1595 baptismal record of a black child in Florida, predating America’s founding as a nation
- A first edition copy of black poet Phillis Wheatley’s book from 1773
- An early draft of the Emancipation Proclamation
- Letters from Malcolm X to Alex Haley, author of Roots and other books of African-American families and history
- Original paintings and sculptures from numerous black artists, dating from the 1800s to the present
Don’t put off visiting The Kinsey Collection at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center! The exhibit closes July 2.
Click here to learn more about The Kinsey Collection at MTCC
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