Bike group hosts Juneteenth event

By DeNeeka Hill

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    RANCHO CORDOVA, California (KCRA) — Bicycle Advocates for Rancho Cordova (BARC) held a small community Juneteenth event at Lincoln Park on Sunday.

The event offered free dinner, kid’s books and bike repairs.

For many, it was a day to enjoy their neighbors, learn about other community organizations and support Black businesses.

“One of our main goals of this event is to highlight Black, locally run and operated organizations,” said Fayzah Mughal with BARC.

There was also a focus on Black health and educating people on the benefits of cycling.

“With the issues the health issues in the Black community with diabetes and obesity levels we’re really trying to get out there and get women of color to say this is a safe place for you to ride there is no judgment,” said Diana Fountaine with Black Girls Do Bike.

While the group highlights Black women, they are all-inclusive.

They are open to diversity and encourage all to celebrate Juneteenth.

June 19, 1865, was the day Black people enslaved in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom from Union soldiers. This happened two months after the Confederacy had surrendered in the Civil War and more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

“This was a day about freedom finally reaching the outer ends of the American South, but it’s also a day just to celebrate that this was a victory that everybody in this country regardless of their color is being seen as a human being,” Fountaine said.

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