The crowd that braved the intense heat wave during the inaugural Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 15, at Penn Center on St. Helena Island. It got so hot at one point that balloons tied to the stage began to burst. Juneteenth, sometimes called Freedom Day, Jubilee Day or Cel-Liberation Day, is an American holiday celebrated on June 19, marking the date in 1865 that the Emancipation Proclamation — which had been issued on January 1, 1863 — was read to enslaved African Americans in Texas by Gordon Granger. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
