JUNETEENTH: Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson (D-Anchorage)

Send us Fan MailIn honor of Juneteenth 2024, I am airing an interview I conducted with Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson from 2023 for my previous podcast, "East Anchorage Matters." Last month the Alaska State House and Senate passed Sen. Gray-Jackson's bill making Juneteenth an Alaska State Holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States and began in Galveston, Texas, where the freed slaves there didn’t learn of their freedom until June 19, 1865, over two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation officially freeing them. Juneteenth has been the longest running African American Holiday, but for many years it was predominantly celebrated in the South, and many folks didn’t know about it. Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson herself arrived in Anchorage from New Jersey on June 19, 1982, with little knowledge of that holiday, but now 42 years later, we celebrate Elvi Gray-Jackson's achievement having made Juneteenth an official Alaska State Holiday.