May 7, 2024
Tulsa City-County Library’s African American Resource Center (AARC) and the Tulsa Library Trust are commemorating Juneteenth with the 25th Annual Historic All-Black Town Tour on Saturday, June 1. The bus will leave at 8 a.m. from Rudisill Regional Library, 1520 N. Hartford, and return to the same location at 5:30 p.m. Breakfast and sign-in will begin at 7 a.m. inside Rudisill Regional Library.
The tour will visit the town of Langston and historic sites in Oklahoma City. It also will visit the African American History Exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. This year, Shirley Ann Nero, distinguished historian, native of all-Black town Clearview and board member of the Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame, will return as a tour guide. She will be joined by Darren Williams, a teacher at McClain High School of Science and Technology.
The tour serves as the African American Resource Center’s celebration of Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, honored annually on June 19. It was on this date in 1865 that African American people still enslaved in Texas, particularly Galveston, were declared free by a general order. The annual All-Black Town Tour celebrates existing and historical towns and communities that were built after emancipation.
Tickets, which are nonrefundable, can be purchased for $55 each in advance and in person at Rudisill Regional Library by card, cash or check. Tickets include breakfast, lunch and museum fare. Seating is limited on a first-come-first-serve basis, and seat sharing is prohibited. Youths ages 17 and under must be accompanied by an adult guardian.
For more information on library programs and services, call 918-549-7323 or visit www.tulsalibrary.org.
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