Juneteenth Keynote: From New Orleans to Galveston to St. Louis and Beyond
Join us for a riveting nine-generation family migration story from Texas to Missouri. Vanessa Slaughter, a native St. Louisan, will join Jim Vincent of the St. Louis African American History & Genealogy Society in a fireside chat to trace her family’s legacy to Galveston, Texas, in the 1860s. Each generation builds on the foundation of love, community, and freedom to give us inspiration to dig into our own family histories and celebrate Juneteenth as a community. The evening will kick off with a brief presentation about the history and meaning of the Juneteenth holiday by Dr. Geoff K. Ward of Washington University in St. Louis and will end with a live performance by the Community Gospel Choir of St. Louis, inspiring us to look deep into our own family legacies of migration, freedom, and community love.