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Juneteenth celebration highlights unity on the Eastern Shore

'Juneteenth is an important celebration, especially on the Eastern Shore, where it matters to us that we care about our neighbors and that we support our friends as well,' said former Northampton County School Superintendent Dawn Goldstine.
Credit: Carol Vaughn, Delmarva Now
Spencer Murray, Northampton County Board of Supervisors Chairman, presents a resolution to Jane Cabarrus during the 19th annual Juneteenth celebration in Exmore, Virginia on Saturday, June 16, 2018.

EXMORE, Va. (Delmarva Now) -- Eastern Shore of Virginia residents came out to Exmore Town Park for a two-day celebration of Juneteenth — a holiday which commemorates the ending of slavery and celebrates African American freedom and achievement.

The Exmore event was the 19th annual Juneteenth festival on the Shore.

Saturday's festivities kicked off with the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Sen. Lynwood Lewis, followed by the singing of the national anthem by Elder Dorothy Giddens and the reading of resolutions from the Northampton and Accomack County Boards of Supervisors honoring the occasion by Spencer Murray, chairman of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors, and C. Reneta Major, Accomack County supervisor.

SEE ALSO: What is Juneteenth? Day marks the end of slavery in the United States

Jane G. Cabarrus, president of the Northampton branch, NAACP, was chairwoman of the event, and Donna Smith, chief executive officer of the Eastern Shore Area Agency on Aging/Community Action Agency was mistress of ceremonies for Saturday.

The event included live music, health screenings, informational booths from community organizations and businesses, voter registration and education, food, a Father's Day celebration on Sunday, and more.

Former Northampton County School Superintendent Dawn Goldstine gave a speech Saturday highlighting the history of Juneteenth and its meaning today.

"Juneteenth is an important celebration, especially on the Eastern Shore, where it matters to us that we care about our neighbors and that we support our friends as well," she said.

Noting that the celebration commemorates the day the news came to Texas that the Civil War had ended and enslaved people were free, Goldstine said, "Can you imagine what that message meant to all of those folks in enslaved situations?"

Goldstine spoke about the community to which she moved some two decades ago to become school superintendent.

"I have never seen a community that has the interest and the potential to be one — and that's an important message, because there are so many things that pull us apart, so many ideas, so many goals, that keep us from being one with one another," she said.

"And I say today, that we are that one in many, many ways. We can also be that one in many more ways. So let us look toward the future with the idea of recognizing the importance of that message and pledge to be one of those people who reach out and support and encourage one another, whoever they may be," she said.

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