Herb Poole garners a first-time award

Westminster’s Juneteenth celebration capped off with the announcement of the first recipient of the city’s Juneteenth Award of Excellence.  The award, made possible by Blue Ridge Bank, denotes excellence.  And, as the presenter, Cassie Moore, began to describe the winner many in the luncheon audience quickly realized it was going to the city’s tireless and long-time recreation director, Herb Poole.  Today’s event at Magnolia Manor drew a crowd of nearly 100 people.  They were treated to a history professor’s lecture on the three-year-old federal holiday that recognizes the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.  For the state of Texas the freedom guaranteed by the end of the Civil War was realized on June 19, 1865, when, by executive decree, more than 250 thousand enslaved black people in Texas were freed.  June 19 became known as Juneteenth.   The featured speaker was Dr. Sonya Ramsey, a history professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.  And part of Ramsey’s talk described Reconstruction in Oconee County.