North Country celebrates Juneteenth

PLATTSBURGH | Three days of celebrations will be held to mark the 2026 national Juneteenth holiday in Clinton and Essex counties, which were hotbeds of abolitionism during a transforming time in American history. Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrates the final end of chattel slavery after the Civil War, when Union troops occupied Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865. FRIDAY. The weekend kicks off Friday evening with blues guitarist Solomon Hicks from NYC, at Retro Live, 14 Margaret St. in Plattsburgh. SATURDAY. A bus tour of Underground Railroad sites leaves from the North Star Underground Railroad Museum, 1131 Mace Chasm Rd., Ausable Chasm, at 10 a.m. The bus costs $10 for an individual and $20 for a family. Register online at https://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com. The tour will go from Keeseville/Peru to Beekmantown/Plattsburgh stopping at key sites in the area, including churches involved in the abolitionist struggle and local cemeteries, with reenactors. Among the reenactors will be the great-great-grandson of local Underground Railroad leader Stephen Keese Smith. Included in the bus tour is a stop at the Plattsburgh Public Library for a special FREE movie that highlights how the Underground Railroad helped a Union soldier get home after he ended up in a Confederate prison. That movie starts at 1:30 p.m. The bus will return to the North Star Museum at 4 p.m. Also on tap is an art exhibit: "What Remains: Voices from the Margins of History," followed by a reception at the SUNY Plattsburgh Art Museum, Myers Fine Arts Building, 101 Broad St. This FREE event will be from 5 to 7 p.m. SUNDAY at noon the celebrations move to the John Brown Farm in North Elba for a family themed fair. Highlights include a concert featuring the well-known Adirondack group Jamcrackers. Also, the Praise Tabernacle Dancers will perform and there will be a recitation of John Brown's final speech at his gravesite. All events Sunday at the John Brown Farm are FREE. Activities will also include children's games and the presentation of the annual Colors of Freedom Award. Food will be available for purchase from the Dogfather Food Truck of Plattsburgh ($10 adults, $7 children). John Brown's final speech was a farewell address delivered to the Virginia court as he was sentenced to be hanged for leading the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. His body was then transported back to the farm in North Elba for burial. The Juneteenth events are sponsored and organized by a network of organizations in the North Country, including the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association; Clinton County Historical Association; John Brown Farm State Historic Site; NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; John Brown Lives!; the Adirondack History Museum; Plattsburgh Public Library; Essex County Arts Council; Paul Smiths College; and the SUNY Plattsburgh Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center and Art Museum. Details on all the events can be found at https://www.northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/forms/web/cof.php.

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North Country celebrates Juneteenth

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