The Ricketts Center hosts the uplifting Pottstown Juneteenth celebration

POTTSTOWN — The liberation of the last enslaved people in the United States 157 years ago was celebrated on Sunday at the Ricketts Center with dance, speeches, songs, and food.

The Juneteenth celebration was organized by the Pottstown branch of the NAACP and captivated a crowd.

Also known as “Freedom Day,” Juneteenth, now a national holiday, enslaved the Union Army’s final domination of Galveston, Texas, and two years ago when President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. Celebrate the day of 1865 in the Emancipation Proclamation. They were now free.

“We were released in 1863, but did not know there was freedom about it until 1865. We were not released until the Union took over those southern states. I was still a slave, “Katina Bearden, president of the Pottstown Board of Education, told the crowd.

Still, she said, black Americans had to fight to exercise the rights conferred by that document and many other documents.

According to her, the Voting Rights Act was adopted over 50 years ago, and black voters are still trying to curb voting. “One person can go back 60 years, but that’s already happening,” says Bearden. “History can be repeated. It can never be too comfortable.”

But history does not need to be repeated if people are required to stand up and be heard. “We need to understand the importance of Unity on June 16th. If we don’t defend each other, that won’t happen,” Bearden said.

These are the lessons she learned here in Pottstown.

“I grew up in this gym,” she told the crowd. “And my mother took me out of the box, thought out of the box, and raised me to do my best for my family and my community.”

“We need to gain freedom,” said Rev. Darrel Brown, Rev. of Remaministries International. “In other words, there is still work to be done.”

“We need to re-commit to eradicating systematic racism. Continue to promote organizations like Black Lives Matter and let our youth know and read our history. Encourage them to do the job. “

They were “teaching, learning, sharing and serving” that day.

In line with that theme, Bobby Watson, a member of the Pottstown NAACP Executive Committee and host of the Sunday event, said, “With or without your support, we tell and learn our history. “.

The two dance performances, like the free buffet and some other speeches, highlighted the event of the day.