SOUTH DEERFIELD, MA – The Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) honors JuneteenthJuneteenth.gif 2021, the first year the holiday is officially recognized in Massachusetts. Juneteenth arose out of the celebrations on June 19, 1865, when the slaves of the last Confederate holdout were officially freed in Galveston Texas. It was the starting point, but nowhere near the finish line for true equality of all Americans.

The GRP Co-chairs would like to acknowledge and honor the following persons who contributed to the well-being, prosperity and freedom of all Americans.

Chelsea, MA-born Lewis Howard Latimer, co-inventor with Thomas Edison of the incandescent lighting system as patented in 1882.

Alexander Miles, invented safer, automated elevator doors in 1887

Sarah Boone, invented a curved ironing board to press the inside and outside seams of sleeves patented in 1892

Garrett Morgan, invented the gas mask in 1914 and the three-position traffic signal in 1923

Frederick McKinley Jones, invented refrigerated trucks in 1939

We also acknowledge:

The soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment who gave their lives in battle so all Americans could live theirs in freedom.

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw – the Commanding Officer of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment who stood up and led by example at a time when too few of his peers had the courage to do same.

Union Army General Gordon Granger – who read General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, officially abolishing the enslavement of all Americans from that day forward.

In Solidarity,
Maha Visnu Gray
Lois Gagnon

Co-chairs, Green-Rainbow Party