Travis County Commssioners Court
June 15, 2004
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Item 8
Number 8, approve proclamation recognizing the 15th annual Juneteenth emancipation day celebration to be held Friday, June 18, 2004. That's this week. Commissioner Davis, would you like to read the proclamation? It reads whereas Juneteenth commemorates the survivalful african-americans brought to this country in a journey across the atlantic ocean. Slavery lasted in the western member eus fear for more than 300 years. On September 22, 1862, president lincoln issued an order to free slaves effective January 1, 1863. However, it was not until June 19th, 1865, 30 months later, that general gordon granger of the u.s. Cal havery arrived in galveston, Texas and found blacks still enslaved. Why as Juneteenth is a day to honor and respect for slavery, on a day on which we acknowledge the evils of slavery and commemorate the emancipation. Whereas the 15th annual Travis County and city of Austin Juneteenth will be on Friday, June 18, 2004, at wool ridge park plaza from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. And all county employees are used to -- urged to use their full hour to celebrate. Whereas the theme for this year's Juneteenth celebration is freedom, hope, faith and future. Whereas on Juneteenth we contemplate that moment when those enslaved in galveston, Texas and throughout Texas received word of their freedom. We imagine the depth of emotions, their jubilant dance and fear of the unknown. Whereas we demonstrate hope when we come together, young and old, to listen and to learn and to [indiscernible] the drive to achieve. Whereas we must exercise our faith with action. And continue the struggle for equal rights and dignity for future generations to come. And whereas let us now take this opportunity to recommit ourselves to celebrate freedom, renew our faith, keep hope in our lives and tkpwra grasses 'the future. Now therefore be it resolved we the members of the Travis County Commissioners court do hereby proclaim June 19, 2004, as emancipation day in Travis County and encourage all of our employees and residents to support the noble purpose of emancipation day. And I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> thank you. I知 cheryl brown and I知 one of the committee members and I知 going to let the others introduce themselves.
>> rebecca hershey with precinct a 5.
>> nellie chavez, [indiscernible] Commissioner Davis.
>> chris thaniel, Commissioner Davis.
>> we thank you for those wise words. You all have some good people writing for you.
>> thank you. [laughter]
>> we want to we are looking forward to this year's event at woolridge park and as judge Biscoe always says, spend your full hour and if you want to take some vacation time, feel free to do that because we're going to have four hours from 11:00 until 2:00. We have as usual a wide range of food booths, crafts, jewelry, entertainment. Chris will talk about our entertainment in a minute, but I want to be real careful for you our court members, please, and the Travis County and city of Austin employees and especially supervisors to notice when we get to the part notice those people who are doing the work. They are doing such a -- it took so much to put this together. This year we had to get in compliance with city health department. Oh, my goodness. And to be in compliance it cost money so we were really surprised. But we have always been clean. It's just an extra costly things that are coming up and it's going to affect Travis County in any type of event whether it's united way or sing koe demy kwroe or whatever. Are there any department heads or friends of Travis County who we have solicited donations from and they have not been able to give that to us at this point, wealth be happy to say this. The last I知 going to say is if there is an elected official, we ask $25 for elected official and there are about three or four people who give us more money than we ask for. One gentleman last year at the park I said it's so nice you always give me more than what I ask and his response was to me because he knows judge Biscoe has to put so much work into this. So I know it's the heat that was bothering him last year. But this year if you want to give us more than $25, we would be glad to have it. Like I said, there's going to be some additional costs.
>> I would just like to say we will have some very good entertainment, we believe. Mr. Jackie cross will be singing for us. Jackie is very well known throughout Austin and throughout the nation. She is a very wonderful singer and I知 sure you will enjoy her. Next I would like to say that as our emcee, judge Biscoe has most graciously accepted, I hope -- [laughter] -- the opportunity to be our emcee for this year's 15th Juneteenth celebration. So we're asking everyone to come out, have a good time, enjoy yourselves. And eat some of the food, drink of the soft drinks. And just have a real good time. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> chris, was -- is jackie cross the lady that sang the star spangled banner right before the mlk March? Who was that lady that sang that?
>> I think she is from the controller's office.
>> oh, yes.
>> was that not --
>> jackie is a wonderful --
>> she's the very pleasant lady you see at our front desk. She's a temporary at this time. When she speaks, she is singing.
>> oh, that jackie.
>> yeah, that jackie. And we're getting her at a real good rate. Donated. [laughter]
>> with the -- [indiscernible] we get the officials at the county to make contributions and the [inaudible] department sells food items, refleshments, typically that money is used to support nonprofit agencies in Travis County. So we try to make it a win-win for pretty much everybody.
>> we do not make a profit off this at all.
>> it is still time for sponsors who are typically a little late like the county judge to send his financial contribution in.
>> you can call me at 854-9111 and you will be added.
>> george, I would like to thank the committee. They do such an outstanding job every year. And I know they've done 15 years of this. That's quite a long time. And of course this committee has hung tight and done a wonderful job in recognizing Juneteenth, which is a really celebrated day because it is a day of emancipation, but it's also a day of freedom. And freedom is something that's not readily hard to hold on to. You just got to maintain freedom and that's throughout the world and throughout the country. Freedom is a very precious commodity. Again, I would like to thank the judge for his long, hard effort and what he's doing in keeping this day alive and the hopes and dreams of this country alive by celebrating Juneteenth. I would like to thank the employees of Travis County. Thank you all.
>> thanks to all of you.
>> thank you. We appreciate it.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. And I guess --
>> you have to take it.
>> would one of you take the event and make sure it's available at the event on Friday.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, ms. Brown.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 8:02 AM