May 5, 2022                          

   Tulsa City-County Library’s African-American Resource Center (AARC) and the Tulsa Library Trust are commemorating Juneteenth with the 23rd annual Historic All-Black Town Tour on Saturday, June 11. The bus will leave at 8 a.m. from Rudisill Regional Library, 1520 N. Hartford Ave., 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.

   This ticketed event includes breakfast, lunch and museum fare. The tour will visit the historic areas of Redbird and Tullahassee, as well as the Ft. Gibson Historic Site. 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, and Jimmie White, historian and founding member of the Black Heritage Committee of the Oklahoma Historical Society, will return as tour guides. 

   The tour serves as the AARC’s celebration of Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and which will be honored as a federal holiday for the first time 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 $45 each in advance and in person at Rudisill Regional Library via cash or check only; credit and debit cards will not be accepted. 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.

     # # #