{"id":16407,"date":"2025-06-19T15:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=16407"},"modified":"2025-06-19T15:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:27:09","slug":"toledos-juneteenth-2025-celebration-includes-a-week-of-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/toledos-juneteenth-2025-celebration-includes-a-week-of-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Toledo\u2019s Juneteenth 2025 Celebration Includes a Week of Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Truth Staff<\/em><\/p>\n

Juneteenth 2025 began on Friday, June 13, this past weekend with a press conference and flag raising at One Government Center followed by a \u00a0parade in downtown Toledo on Saturday morning, a wellness fair presented by the brothers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc; a vendors\u2019 pop up event organized by Powell\u2019s Beauty and Barber Supply on Nebraska Avenue and a rooftop celebration hosted by the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, at the Main Branch Toledo Library.<\/p>\n

Juneteenth commemorates the legal emancipation of enslaved people in the United States 160 years ago. President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth into law as a federal holiday in 2021 acknowledging the fact that Juneteenth has developed into a symbol of African American culture and freedom and a day to recognize African American communities nationally.<\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s press conference, The City of Toledo, the Human Relations Commission and community partners, raised the Pan-African flag to honor Juneteenth and start the holiday celebrations. Speaking at the press conference were Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, Tiffany Whitman, PhD, City of Toledo Chief Equity offices, Darlene Sweeney Newbern, president of the NAACP; David Ross of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo; Richelle Watkins, president of the Zeta Alpha Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Jodie Summers, area poet and artist.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIn my life I\u2019ve never let the color of my skin, my melanation or ancestry dictate what I can do because I was told from childhood that I can be anything and that\u2019s exactly what I decided to do,\u201d recited Summers. \u201cI was always told if you change for those around you, you will eventually lose you, so I go to everything with a smile on my face just as I am because I know someone needs to see the person that looks like you.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the festivities began at 11 a.m. as when the Community United Juneteenth Parade got underway, delayed for an hour to let the rain pass. The parade which included Mayor Kapszukiewicz, several candidates for elected office such as mayoral candidate Roberto Torres and city council candidate Blair Johnson, also presented some youth marching groups, union members, Palestinians protesting the genocide in Gaza and, of course, Mickey Mouse.<\/p>\n

Thankfully no marching infantry or aging army tanks were part of the parade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth Staff Juneteenth 2025 began on Friday, June 13, this past weekend with a press conference and flag raising at One Government Center followed by a \u00a0parade in downtown Toledo on Saturday morning, a wellness fair presented by the brothers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc; a vendors\u2019 pop up event organized by Powell\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[298,23],"class_list":["post-16407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover_story","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16412,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407\/revisions\/16412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16407"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=16407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}