NJ.com’s Rodrigo Torrejon reports
New Jersey Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver was a bit ambivalent about Juneteenth.
For as long as she could remember, she and the Black community have celebrated the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and told the last of the slaves that they were free. It was more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves.
The holiday is a way to honor Black ancestors, remembering the pain and suffering slavery inflicted. But the work isn’t over, Oliver said.