Juneteenth on Long Island: Patchogue, Hempstead join others in hosting commemorations

For more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the Village of Patchogue didn’t celebrate the day word finally reached Texas that the war — and slavery — were over.

But since Juneteenth was made a national holiday in 2021, the village is one of several Islandwide hosting events to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.

On Monday, a group of residents who honor the memories of Civil War soldiers from the North gathered to celebrate Juneteenth at the American Legion Post 269.

Part of the American fabric

Members of the Society of the Grand Army of the Republic read the proclamation that was announced in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and laid wreaths at the foot of a statue honoring residents of the area who gave their lives in the Civil War.

“It’s part of the American fabric,” said Thomas Badamo, who heads the Patchogue chapter of the Society of the Grand Army of the Republic. “It should be recognized.”

It was the third year in a row the group has organized the event. It attracted a small crowd, mainly consisting of some local officials. But organizers hope it will grow in the future.

In Hempstead Village, they celebrated what officials billed as the oldest and biggest Juneteenth event on Long Island. The village closed James A. Garner Way to traffic and set up a portable stage. It was a day of joy — cotton candy and bounce castles for hundreds of children — tinged with melancholy for some adults.

“We never heard about it, never mentioned it,” said Warren Hargwood, 61, a West Babylon mechanic who said he was long out of school when he learned about Juneteenth’s origins, mostly from reading the news.

“We missed out on a lot of things,” he said, and older generations probably passed without ever learning the history of the day. For Hargwood, commemorations like Monday's in Hempstead, “pull the Band-Aid off wounds that happened years ago.”

Gaining more attention

Juneteenth celebrations date back to about a decade after the war ended, with varied levels of popularity in different parts of the country. But they are gaining more attention since the holiday's national designation.

Enslaved people were freed in parts of the United States controlled by the Confederacy when President Abraham Lincoln decreed the Emancipation Proclamation, effective Jan. 1, 1863. But the order was not enforced in many states until the war ended in April 1865. Even after it did, it took two months for word to reach Texas.

On that day in Galveston, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3, which proclaimed to the people of Texas that "all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves …"

In Patchogue, Badamo said that Union soldiers helped "free four million souls," as noted by a sign erected on the grounds of the local American Legion Post. The names of key Civil War battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg are engraved at the feet of the Citizen Soldier monument there.

David Mann, 75, an East Patchogue resident and Vietnam War veteran who serves as a chaplain for the local chapter of Society of the Grand Army of the Republic, said he was grateful for the Juneteenth ceremony. But he added that the struggle that began during the Civil War and continued on through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s isn't over.

Work not finished

“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done,” said Mann, who Black. "Our country is coming apart at the seams … We have to come together as a nation on both sides.”

Hempstead Village trustee Clariona Griffith said the day was a chance “to plant the seed” for younger residents, and a chance for a village of nearly 60,000 people to “come together and be able to enjoy” the pleasure of each other’s company.

For Mayor Waylyn Hobbs, the day inspired patriotism and some hometown pride: It was a reminder that “there is nothing that can hold us back as a country,” he said, and noteworthy that Hempstead Village was among the first local municipalities to mark the day five years ago.

“We didn’t have to wait for it to become a national holiday to celebrate,” he said.