The Cobb NAACP has held its annual Juneteenth Ceremony in Marietta since long before the holiday was declared official by federal state and local governments.

In fact, this is the 20th year of celebration of the announcement by a U.S. Army officer in Galveston Texas that legal slavery in the U.S. had ended.

The event announcement states:

“Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday. 

“Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: ‘The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.’”

The event will be held this year on Marietta Square Friday, June 16 – Sunday, June 18, 2023.

For a complete schedule visit the Cobb NAACP website at https://cobbnaacp.org/flyer/

Another Juneteenth event in Marietta is the Marietta History Center’s Juneteenth Cemetery Walking Tour.

This event will begin Jun 19, 2023 at 6 p.m.  The cost is $15 for non-members and free for MHC members.

For complete information visit the announcement on the City of Marietta website.

About the City of Marietta

The City of Marietta is the county seat of Cobb County. The latest estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau puts the population of the city at 60,867 which makes it the second largest city in Cobb County by population, smaller only than the newly incorporated City of Mableton.

Here are a few quick facts from the Census Bureau