Liberating a Holiday From Neglect : Tradition: Juneteenth commemorates freeing of slaves in Texas, where it’s a big celebration. Some try to keep it alive here.

No one need tell 78-year-old Sara Shaw the meaning of Juneteenth.

As a native of Texas, where June 19 is an official holiday commemorating the liberation of the slaves, Shaw grew up with the stories of bondage. Her great-grandfather ran and hid from slave owners for five months unnecessarily because he did not know of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

“He didn’t even know he was free,” Shaw said Saturday.

But as she sat under a shady tree in Jerome Park, the site of one of three local Juneteenth celebrations, Shaw feared the holiday is being forgotten.

Having organized Santa Ana’s first Juneteenth celebration 28 years ago--an event that was renewed Saturday after several stops and starts over the years--Shaw served up her barbecue and hoped that Orange County would take notice of the holiday.

According to Texas folklore, slaves in that state did not learn of their freedom until June 19, 1865, the day the news arrived by mule, and more than two years after Lincoln signed his proclamation at the height of the Civil War.

With the black population making up only about 2% of Orange County’s population, the community is not as cohesive as it was when she first set out to commemorate Juneteenth in California in the mid-1960s, Shaw said.

“We should interest young people more and let them be aware of (the holiday) more than we do,” Shaw said.

The sounds of gospel music and the aroma of barbecue also filled the air at the Santa Ana Zoo, where the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People sponsored its third annual Juneteenth fund-raiser.

“This is my first time going to a celebration,” said Zella Johnson, 29, of La Palma. Although she had attended Juneteenth breakfasts in the past, a friend in Texas told her of the huge festivals there.

Willie Mae Hunt, who has organized the NAACP’s event each year, said she wanted to create a celebration that would draw together the county’s small black community.

“I don’t care what city you are talking about, there’s not a (black) neighborhood,” Hunt said. “So why not Juneteenth? It’s historic as well as a means to network.”