Decatur’s first-ever Juneteenth celebration was scheduled for late Saturday afternoon, but city officials canceled the event because of the rising risk of inclement weather from Tropical Storm Claudette.
The Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights had worked on hosting the event, and festivities were also co-sponsored by the city.
In addition to the traditional celebration of the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were finally told about the Emancipation Proclamation, the event also aimed to mark the one-year anniversary of the removal of a Confederate monument on the Decatur square.
The 30-foot Confederate obelisk was removed from the Decatur square last summer, as the night of June 18 turned into the morning of June 19. DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger — who retired at the end of 2020 after a storied career — signed the order declaring it a public nuisance and ordering it to be placed in storage.
The obelisk had stood on the square since being erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908.
The first-ever Juneteenth celebration was planned as “the first of what we hope becomes an annual tradition,” Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett had said in a news release.
In its official announcement of the cancellation, Decatur said information on rescheduled activities could be released later.
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