Travis County Commissioners Court
June 14, 2005
Item 5
Five is to approve proclamation recognizing the 16th annual Juneteenth emancipation day celebration to be held on Friday, June 17th, 2005. The proclamation reads whereas Juneteenth is a freedom celebration that became a tradition when on June 19th, 1865, a ship sailed into galveston harbor and issued a proclamation that gave freedom to a quarter of a million blacks in Texas who were still in bon damage two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation was issued by president lincoln on January first, 1863, whereas many slaves left their master after being freed to search for their family members or just because they could, they left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. As they were freed they began a long struggle to gain equal rights as american citizens. Whereas this 140-year-old occurrence might seem as ancient history, echoes of the story resonate in the stories of people of faith and on color today. It remind us that it is a far cry from getting them in real life. Today courageous men and women are still fighting for the civil rights of african-americans. Whereas Juneteenth is an occasion that should remind us to continue to strive to replace violence with peace, hatred with love and big got try with respect for all men and women. Whereas with a spirit of reconciliation and valued ethnic heritage, let us all be reminded that our nation would not achieve its full potential until each of us has been granted unfettered funt to reach -- opportunity to reach his or her potential and each must join the mated fooit to make this nation the best it can be by finding our role and filling it and whereas the theme for this year's employee Juneteenth emancipation day celebration is a fight for freedom past and president, this 16th annual Travis County and city of Austin Juneteenth emancipation day celebration will be held on Friday, June 17th, 2005, and that's this coming Friday, at wooldridge park plaza from 11:00 a.m. To two p.m. Now therefore be it resolved that we the members of the Travis County Commissioners court do here by proclaim June 19th, 2005, as Texas emancipation day in Travis County and encourage all residents to attend the fes tft activities. And I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> morning.
>> thank you, judge Biscoe and Commissioners. My name is cheryl brown and I’m staff member of judge samuel t. Biscoe.
>> still. [ laughter ]
>> we'll wait until I finish this speech. [ laughter ] we thank you again for the support that you give us each year. And it's not just the judge Biscoe and Commissioner Davis. It takes all of us and friends that we have throughout Travis County and the city of Austin to help us. This is not something that we do to make any money. It's just a big celebration. And with such a large audience that we have today, I want each one of you all to know that you are welcome. There might be a time this week when everybody is going to be getting along on Friday. [ laughter ] so come on out. [ applause ] come on out and you all are welcome. This year, as usual, there's just a few members of the June teeth committee that are present because our supervisors believe that everybody staying at their desk and doing their job, so that's why you see just a few, but there are so many people that work hard in the trenches to get this done. So when you're walking around shaking hands with Commissioner Davis and mr. Biscoe and the Commissioners court, be real careful to -- you will have a list of other people we call the little people who are behind the scenes and make a point to say thank you to them as well. This is the first year i've had the opportunity to have someone on the court -- on my committee who likes to talk as much as I do. And that's jackie cross. [ laughter ] she's going to be over -- took the lead for our entertainment. Do you want to talk a little about the entertainment, jackie in. Eah, I’m real excited to be on the committee. It's an honor to be here. This is my first year helping Travis County fulfill the Juneteenth 140th anniversary. And that's phenomenal in and of itself. The entertainment this year is we got the beat 104.3 radio station to come and do a live remote, so they will be there for two hours and they will have t-shirts and cd's and we can say hi and invite everybody to come on down to the celebration. Myself will be singing the black national anthem as well as a couple other songs. They're twisting my arm and making me do this, but I’m happy to be a part. Let's see, what else do we have? We have a dj, dj rocky rock who will be spinning some old dis for you old school people out there. The oldies but goodies, that's my age group. It's going to be a great time to be enjoyed by all, so please make a point to come out. We will also have the buffalo soldiers will be there to make a presentation. Also have a booth. Our booth -- there's going to be a lot of good food, so bring your wallets, bring your purses, because each department -- several departments are participating. I want to let the public know that this is not anything that Travis County makes any money on. The departments sell different items, food, crafts, jewelry, different things like that for fun of their individual offices. Sometimes somebody may be in a hospital and send a bow kay of flowers to a co-worker. Sometimes they want to send children to camp. So it's not like we're raising money for ourselves. We depend on our paychecks only. So don't worry about that. This is not a fund-raising event as far as Travis County is concerned. One other thij with dj rocky rock, it came up with chris. Chris asked since rocky rock is such a professional was he going to bring the women. We used to call them go-go girls. I understand they're called exotic dancers nowadays.
>> they're not? [ laughter ] [overlappingspeakers].
>> and when I told them that no, mr. Rocky rock was not bringing any of those type of ladies, I volunteered me and jackie to play the part. When chris stopped vomiting long enough, we took that back. So we will just get the music, it will be clean, you can bring your children, it will be real clean. We will have -- t-shirts and then I will be quiet. We have t-shirts for sale, Juneteenth t-shirt. Thank you, chris. And they start at the price of $10. You can contact mr. Davis' office or judge Biscoe's office and anyone on the committee and we have those for sale. They start at 10. As things get larger, the price goes up, but not that much. [ laughter ] I think we've covered it all. Oh, one real good thing. We have -- in some of our booths we will have some health screening. In the black population it's common for high blood pressure to run -- people of color tend to have some different ailments, so we're going to have testing for high blood pressure. Starflight will be there and also e.m.s. Our wellness clinic will be there giving literature on breast examination and prostate cancer literature, so it's not going to be just fun, it's going to be educational as well. And we hope to see you all there. We thank all of you. [ applause ]
>> thank you, committee members. For the record, the court has always approved of this activity. We never get a chance to preview the entertainment. So we don't know what's going to happen either. [ laughter ] thank you very much. And all in favor of the motion? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 8:10 PM