Contra Costa County officials released details about a planned Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony at County Center in Redwood City this Friday.
The flag raising will take place at 9 a.m. in the courtyard of 400 County Center. Later in the month, the flag will be moved to a more visible flagpole on Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City, which is less suitable for a ceremony, the County said.
At Friday’s ceremony, Marie Davis, former NAACP local chapter president, will sing the Black national anthem. Speakers will include the Rev. Lorrie Owens, San Mateo NAACP; Rose Jacobs Gibson, Honorary Chair of the 2022 Juneteenth Celebration and Supervisors Don Horsley and Carole Groom.
For those unable to attend, the ceremony will be livestreamed on the County’s Facebook page and the recording later posted on its Juneteeth webpage, which features a curated reading list from local libraries along with historical details. Beyond the ceremony, the County will host a month of hour-long webinars on “topics including local perspectives on Juneteeth and housing.” The webinars will take place at 7 p.m. every Tuesday, beginning June 7. Learn more and register for events here.
On May 3, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors designated June 19 as Juneteenth and made it an observed County government holiday.
“Juneteenth gets its name from combining June and nineteenth, the day (June 19) in 1865 when the enslaved people of Texas learned of the freedom following the Civil War,” the County notes. “The County of San Mateo is raising the flag in early June to take the opportunity to educate the public about the history, power, resilience and unbroken spirit of Black Americans over the course of the month.”
To Horsley, Juneteenth is a time to reflect upon history and “take action to progress the causes of equality and justice. Groom added, “Juneteenth is a day to recommit ourselves to equity, equality, and justice for all.”
