Brewer Juneteenth ceremony returns for 22nd year

BREWER, Maine (WABI) - A Brewer tradition is returning this week.

Friday marks Juneteenth, the day in 1865 that word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached enslaved people in Texas, the most remote state that was part of the former Confederacy.

While Juneteenth only became a federal holiday in 2021, the ceremony commemorating Juneteenth at Joshua Chamberlian Freedom Park is returning for its 22nd year.

Jim Varner from the Maine Human Rights Coalition, now 92, has been there every step of the way.

He urges people to think about what they can do to end racial inequality.

“Think about what you can do today because there’s still some lingering problems with the vestiges of slavery and how people feel about people like me with brown skin,” said Varner.

The event starts Friday at 11 a.m. at Freedom Park in Brewer.