The teen members of the Young Abolitionists Leadership Institute in partnership with Excelsior University are celebrating Juneteenth at an event on Saturday, June 17, as a time for remembrance, learning, and sharing.

The event, open to the public, will take place from noon to 4 p.m. at the home of local Underground Railroad abolitionist activists Stephen and Harriet Myers, located at 194 Livingston Ave. in Albany.

“Enjoy food at inexpensive cost organized by teens from the Young Abolitionist Leadership Institute, photos with an image of Stephen Myers, tour and view historical presentations by teen program participants, relax in the beautiful gardens, shop at our Black artisans gallery, enjoy many other features,” says a notice from the Underground Railroad Education Center.

Exhibitors will be on hand from Excelsior University, the Urban League, the NAACP, Albany Symphony, Black Dimensions In Art, Albany Institute of History and Art, Drumming Circles, Red Bookshelf, the New York State Museum, and Arbor Hill Development Corporation.

The CDTA Trolley will offer free continuous transport to the four Albany sites that are celebrating Juneteenth — The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, Ten Broeck Mansion, the African American Cultural Center, and the New York State Museum beginning at 12:30 p.m. and concluding at 4 p.m.

Describing the history of Juneteenth, the center says, “On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they were free, nearly two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Gordon Granger, a Union General, arrived in Galveston, Texas about two months after the Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia to inform enslaved African-Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended …

“A century and a half later, people in cities and towns across the U.S. continue to celebrate the occasion.”

The center’s notice goes on to quote Afro-Latina author, editor, and teacher Veronica Chambers: “Freedom is in the claiming. The elemental sermon embedded into the history and lore of Juneteenth has always been one of hope. The gifts of the holiday are the moments of connection, renewal and joy for a people who have had to endure so much, for so long. To me, Juneteenth matters because it says: Keep going, the future you want is coming.”

“Focusing on America’s unprecedented and long overdue examination of systemic racism rooted in the antebellum federally sanctioned institution of enslavement,” writes the center’s director, Mary Liz Stewart, “Underground Railroad Education Center connects the historical Underground Railroad movement, the first civil rights movement in the United States, with current struggles to dismantle injustice, oppression and racism, highlighting the voices of Black abolitionists and freedom seekers who worked as and set the stage for us today to be agents of change working toward an equitable and just society.”

— Melissa Hale-Spencer