Lexington Juneteenth to Honor Black Civil War Veterans
This Saturday in African Cemetery No. 2, gaze upon the graves of black civil war veterans, many of them former slaves in Kentucky, and remember that for decades before the war, Lexington was the biggest slave market in the country.
Merlene Davis at the Herald:
June 19, celebrated as Juneteenth in many parts of this country, will mark the 149th anniversary of Gen. Gordon Granger's march into Galveston, Texas, freeing what is considered the last group of slaves in America.
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If it is left up to Yvonne Giles, that anniversary will be celebrated every year in African Cemetery No. 2, at the gravesites of dozens of men who served in the military during the Civil War.
"Had it not been for these men who sacrificed their lives, there would be no Juneteenth and none of us would be free," said Giles, director of the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum and member of the cemetery board.
This year, the 11th for the celebration, five youth from Main Street Baptist Church will portray the founding pastor of the church, the Rev. Frederick Braxton, and his wife, two of their sons, and a long-time church member who served as deacon, trustee and interim pastor in the early 1900s. All of them are buried in the cemetery at 419 East Seventh Street, as are 62 known Civil War veterans.
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Five tents will be set up at key monuments in the cemetery Saturday and the history of some of the veterans will be told by cemetery board members, Giles said. Visitors will receive a stamp at each tent and when they have collected all five, they will be treated to a camp-style meal of water and hardtack, she said, laughing. Hardtack is a very hard biscuit made of flour and water, and salt if you were lucky.
I asked her if that is supposed to be the big draw?
She laughed harder.
"That was what they carried with them in case the chuck wagon could not reach them," Giles said. "This is the adventure of discovery. You can find out how hard they had to live, walking for miles and they had to eat cold food."
Giles added there would more items on the menu than hardtack for those of us in the 21st Century.
"Highlighting the Spirit of Freedom" starts at 10:30 a.m. June 15.
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