‘America’s Second Independence Day’
Published 5:25 pm Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Barbara Wiggins inspects handmade soaps sold by Diana Gaston.
Sarah Moore exhibits her cloth creations.
Joahan brown exhibits her quilts.
Windsor-based children’s book author Dale Jordan sells her books at a Juneteenth-themed table.
Catina Johnson markets her book, “You Got This,” in the church foyer.
Richard Linyear, who headed the Schoolhouse Museum’s Juneteenth committee, referred to the date in his remarks as “America’s Second Independence Day.”
The Rev. Dr. James Harrison, pastor of Main Street Baptist Church, delivers closing remarks.
Ariane Williams, newly-elected president of Isle of Wight County’s NAACP, performs an interpretive dance.
Glenn Lyttle, standing behind a projection screen, performs Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.”
Smithfield’s Schoolhouse Museum celebrated Juneteenth with a June 19 presentation at Main Street Baptist Church, and with food and vendors in the church foyer.
Virginia is in its third year of recognizing Juneteenth as an official state holiday, which marks the date in 1865 that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned the Civil War had ended and that the Emancipation Proclamation had made them free two years earlier.
The Schoolhouse Museum, located across the street from the church, documents early 20th century African American public education. Above, Barbara Wiggins inspects handmade soaps sold by Diana Gaston.
