Secretary of State William Galvin on Wednesday opened the Commonwealth Museum’s celebration of the 156th anniversary of Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
Secretary of State William Galvin on Wednesday opened the Commonwealth Museum’s celebration of the 156th anniversary of Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. The museum, located in the State Archives next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Columbia Point in Dorchester, features an exhibit called “Juneteenth: Enslavement to Emancipation,” which will run through the holiday on Saturday. “It is an education about the past but also a challenge for the future,” Galvin said. “The murder of George Floyd showed us we still have a lot of issues related to racial injustice.” The exhibit features 14 original documents dating from 1641 to 1865. The documents show that, contrary to what many people know, Galvin said, Massachusetts was a slave state.
