Juneteenth: Celebrate Freedom

On Monday, June 19, 2023, McAfee & Taft will be closed in observance of Juneteenth, which commemorates the day the last enslaved African Americans in the country (located in Galveston, Texas) were informed of their emancipation. Tragically, it was two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that they were officially told of their freedom and it was enforced.

Juneteenth honors both our nation’s painful racial history and the progress that has been made towards the promises of justice and equality for all Americans. As an Oklahoma-based company that is deeply connected to its community and in the business of ensuring the legal system operates for everyone, McAfee strives to acknowledge our home state’s unique history (such as the Tulsa Race Massacre), uplift the efforts of the talented and resilient Oklahomans working each day for the unconditional freedom of all, and find ways to support the deeply important work of progress.

McAfee & Taft encourages its attorneys, staff, and all Oklahomans to attend one of the many Juneteenth celebrations around the state:

• Tulsa Juneteenth Festival
  Historic Greenwood Avenue, Tulsa, June 15 – 17
• Juneteenth on the East
  NE 23^rd Street, Between Hood and Kelham, Oklahoma City, 3pm – 10pm, June 17
• Guthrie Juneteenth Celebration
  Mineral Wells Park, Guthrie, 4pm – 10pm, June 17
• Oklahoma Juneteenth Festival
  Cole Community Center, Oklahoma City, 11am – 5pm, June 19
• Norman Juneteenth Festival
  Reaves Park, Norman – 6pm – 10pm, June 19
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“We chose this moment to savor,
to see where we’ve come from,
to chart where we were going to go,
and to relish the strength of
our families and communities.”

Kelly E. Navies, Museum Specialist of Oral History
at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

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