Juneteenth celebration coming to Paso Robles’ Downtown City Park
The Paso Robles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to co-sponsor the city’s first official Juneteenth Celebration at Downtown City Park.
Juneteenth commemorates the end of Black American slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865. On that day, a Union general informed enslaved persons in Galveston, Texas, of their freedom.
The announcement in Galveston came two and a half years after the Civil War ended and President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation.
It became a federal holiday last year when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act last year.
Last year, Black Lives Matter Community Action organizers hosted a Juneteenth Celebration at Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo, but this is the first city-hosted event in Paso Robles.
Juneteenth Celebration comes to Paso Robles
Although the City Council approved plans to co-sponsor the Juneteenth Celebration, it will not provide any financial support to help put on the event, according to the staff report.
Juanetta Perkins was born in Paso Robles, coaches at the local high school and is planning the Juneteenth Celebration.
“I felt like this was the place for us to share our Black heritage,” Perkins said. “We’re inviting everybody to share with us and see us.”
Perkins said hosting Juneteenth at the Downtown City Park is important.
“I was born and raised in Paso, and that’s the meeting spot of everything. When you were bored when we were in high school, we met at City Park. We have all of our special events at the City Park. Pioneer Day is there,” Perkins said.
“That’s our whole community’s park but lately I have been feeling like we’re not welcome there. So I feel like this is the time for us to put all that stuff behind us, Let’s start over, let’s be kind and everybody get along,” she said.
The event will be a celebration of Black American freedom and culture and will feature music, speakers and soul food catered by Jackie’s Place in San Jose.
Perkins said the committee is still in the process of finalizing the music and speakers.
“We have our Black culture, but I want to let people know that we are people of Paso, born and raised in Paso, with Black culture,” she said. “It’s not just that we’re Blacks, we’re Paso Blacks. That’s where my heart is.”
The local Juneteenth Committee will be hosting the multicultural event at Downtown City Park on Saturday, June 18, from 12 to 4 p.m.
