Salem Juneteenth block party celebrates ‘a moment of Black joy’
Juneteenth is personal for Pastor Ronnie Brooks.
His grandfather, Young Edgar Brooks, was among the enslaved people freed in 1865. He migrated to Decatur, Texas, where he eventually ran a corner store and opened the city’s first Black church. He lived to be 106.
On Thursday afternoon, Ronnie Brooks, pastor of To God Be the Glory Church in northeast Salem, led a crowd of dozens in prayer at a Juneteenth block party downtown.
“We think…
