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Juneteenth: 'It's Not About Eating Lunch, You're Eating History'

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon
/
KUT
Farley Lewis helps himself to lunch at the second annual Lunch and Learn Juneteenth celebration at the George Washington Carver Museum on Tuesday.

On this Juneteenth, people in Austin had a chance to get a taste of history.

The holiday celebrates Union Gen. Gordon Granger delivering news of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas in 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed it.

Credit Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon / KUT
/
KUT
Angela Shelf Medearis has hosted the Lunch and Learn for the past two years.

Juneteenth is now the most prominent Emancipation Day in the U.S. and is celebrated by people around the world. To mark the occasion in Austin, the George Washington Carver Museum hosted the second annual Juneteenth Lunch and Learn.

Chef and author Angela Medearis prepared African, Caribbean, Texan and Southern inspired dishes including Zimbabwe rice salad, Carver-styled black-eyed peas, corn on the cob, apple cider coleslaw, fruit salad and apple streusel.

Credit Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon / KUT
/
KUT
The lunch featured African, Caribbean, Texan and Southern dishes.

During the lunch, participants reenacted the announcement that slavery had been abolished and sang African-American spirituals.

Credit Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon / KUT
/
KUT
Gary Eargle plays Union Gen. Gordon Granger in a reenactment of the 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. At right are brothers Joshua and Marcus Cole.

DaLyah Jones is a former assistant producer for All Things Considered and evening host. She is also co-host of the Two & Fro podcast.
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