Salem groups to commemorate Juneteenth with celebration, education

The local commemoration of Black emancipation from slavery on Monday, June 19, will include games, music and food.

This Juneteenth, a community block party will fill the Salem Capitol Mall with games, vendors and music to celebrate the Black community’s freedom.

On June 19, 1865, over two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, around 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with the news that the enslaved people in the state…