Juneteenth

Fred U. Harris Lodge #70 hosts a Community wide Bar-B-Q annually for people in the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater area in celebration of Juneteenth.  Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Juneteenth independence day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America. Texas was the most remote of the slave states, and the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was not enforced there until after the Confederacy collapsed.  The Juneteenth Bar-B-Q takes place each June on a Saturday before or after June 19.