Honoring Juneteenth

In the coming days King County will honor Juneteenth as an opportunity to shine a light on the power of our Black community’s health, strength, resiliency and beauty.

Read More

JUNETEENTH 2022: A Message to Community

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, declared enslaved Black people in Confederate-controlled areas were free. However, it wasn’t until “Juneteenth” – June 19, 1865, two and a half years later, that Major General Gordon Granger and approximately 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to announce the war was over and slavery had ended.

Read More

Recognizing and Celebrating juneteenth

Our public health department hasn’t observed Juneteenth in the past as we should, and that will change. Going forward, we will be more intentional about the ways in which we center Black voices and honor the history that’s shaped where we are today.

Read More