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| WPCNR WESTCHESTER WIRE. From Westchester County Legislator, Benjamin Boykin. June 17, 2022: This Sunday marks the second time that Juneteenth is being celebrated as a federal holiday.Across Westchester, what is often called America’s “second independence day,” will be observed in public and private celebrations, concerts, art exhibits, church services, street fairs and cook outs — the sort of joyful group festivities that have characterized Juneteenth celebrations since the holiday’s origins in south Texas more than 150 years ago. We will, of course, be reminded of the holiday’s origins — in the arrival of the Union Army in Galveston, Texas on the morning of June 19, 1865, finally enforcing the freedom of the enslaved people there more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. But Juneteenth is more than just a celebration of something that happened a long time ago. Like our other public holidays, Juneteenth offers us a welcome chance to celebrate and enjoy ourselves with friends and family, but also an opportunity for serious reflection — on the forced sacrifice of generations of enslaved Africans whose labor built this country, on the foundations of our shared culture erected by African Americans, and on our continuing obligation to work ceaselessly to live up to our American ideals of equality, liberty and justice .Early Voting Begins The early celebrations of Juneteenth in the years immediately after the Civil War were often opportunities to provide voting information to newly freed Americans who had been disenfranchised for generations. This Juneteenth weekend, voters in Westchester fittingly will have an opportunity to exercise their voting rights.Early voting begins Saturday, June 18 for the June 28 Primary for all local, state and federal offices other than State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. (The primaries for State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives will be held August 23.) Registered voters eligible to vote in their party’s primary will be able to cast their ballot at any of the County’s 23 designated early voting locations during nine-day early voting period. For a list of early voting locations and poll opening and closing times please visit the Westchester County Board of Elections website at https://citizenparticipation.westchestergov.com/voting/early-voting-2022 |