Please join us for a Juneteenth vigil to show solidarity and support for #BlackLivesMatter. The vigil will take place in downtown Tahoe City from 5:30-7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 19.

Please meet at Heritage Plaza in downtown Tahoe City at 5:30 p.m. We will gather for a few words from Rob Watts and then line up along the lakeside sidewalk of highway 28 with signs of support. Please assemble on the lakeside sidewalk ONLY so as not to interfere with local businesses on the other side of the street.

Please bring signs of support, as well as to wear masks and maintain proper social distancing.

All attendees are asked to assemble, advocate, and disperse peacefully. The event’s organizers are proactively coordinating with the Placer County Sheriff’s office on the peaceful event.

BACKGROUND ON JUNETEENTH:

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation came two-and-a-half years earlier on January 1, 1863, many slave owners continued to hold their slaves captive after the announcement, so Juneteenth became a symbolic date representing African American freedom.