Neighborhood to celebrate Juneteenth

Kristina Estle, manager of the Underground Railroad Museum, also said the neighborhood will sponsor events out of 11 a.m. till 3 p.m.

Neighborhood to celebrate Juneteenth

"We made a decision to proceed with all our Juneteenth celebration. "We'll have the museum open daily for anybody who would like to see, so we've got a great deal going on."

The state will raise all health constraints this Wednesday.

"I surely hope that the pandemic will probably soon be coming to a conclusion. I believe people are prepared to escape and get started attending events, which is very good for smaller companies such as ourselves which fought through the ordeal," Estle said.

Additionally remembered are the late John Mattox, that was curator of this museum and based it together with his wife, Rosalind, who's also dead. Educating region residents about background was one of the assignments.

Presentations are scheduled, including one by John Mattox Jr. who'll provide an introduction and talk about the museum and also awaiting his dad's heritage.

Estle will talk about the history of Juneteenth. Wheeling historian Margaret Brennan may even talk.

Brennan will show about"captivity in Wheeling, and also the way it had been the final stop for captivity," Estle said.

"We will be dressing in 1860s clothes to create our presentations more attractive to the viewers," Estle said, including that the presenters will set the stage together with some history concerning the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.

"I also believe this might be a fantastic chance to ignite an interest . There appears to be a lack of curiosity with younger generations. As a public historian, I think that it's really important to achieve those younger generations.

She explained many will get a chance to participate.

"We'll be using a sellers' series, and we're still searching for sellers," she explained.

"We will have a poetry competition, and there'll be two classes -- middle school and higher school. I've assembled a judge panel which will pick the best three of both of these groups, and those best few people will read these poems in the party and the audience will vote for the winner," she explained. "The Ohio Valley Theater has given a sum of cash for us to buy gift certificates"

"I feel that is a fantastic incentive to get kids to truly consider slavery and the emancipation and exactly what it means to become liberated," Estle said.

An in-person occasion is very welcome after COVID-19 this past year.

"It was dreadful last year after I could not do anything for Juneteenth. There wasn't enough time to do anything almost. This season I am very excited because we've got this chance to do something today," Estle said.

She added that many community members don't seem to understand what Juneteenth is.

"This really is a fantastic opportunity for us to actually reach from the neighborhood concerning this portion of history a lot of the neighborhood does not know," Estle said. "And Juneteenth is really the official end of slavery in this nation, and I think that it's very important to observe it.

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers headed by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, together with all the information that the Civil War had ended and the men and women who stayed in Confederate lands were liberated. The Emancipation Proclamation, that took effect Jan. 1, 1863, had little effect on regions where there weren't sufficient Union troops to enforce it. Consequently, slavery remained unchanged in a lot of Texas before Granger arrived.

"It was a critical moment in our nation for freedom for everybody."

For people that cannot attend or are still unsure about collecting in person, the West Liberty University information technology section is going to be streaming live on the university online stations, and Estle expects to flow the party on the museum's Facebook page.

The museum site is ugrrf.org. West Liberty University can be seen in westliberty.edu.