In honor of Juneteenth, the group Faith in Florida will host a statewide memorial service Friday.
The service is to remember the lives lost to police brutality and gun violence. There will be three services taking place on the Treasure Coast and in South Florida.
In what is now known as Juneteenth, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Texas with news that the Civil War is over and slavery in the United States is abolished.
A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to commemorate the end of slavery in America. Despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued more than two years earlier on January 1, 1863, a lack of Union troops in the rebel state of Texas made the order difficult to enforce.
Some historians blame the lapse in time on poor communication in that era, while others believe Texan slave-owners purposely withheld the information.
In Martin County, services begin at 11 a.m. at the Stuart courthouse. Services will be held at the Fort Pierce City Hall at 5 p.m. and services in Palm Beach County begin at noon. We're working to learn where the location for that will be.
