The 6200 block of Germantown Avenue is home to Philadelphia’s first official Juneteenth mural, as it is named. On Saturday, over 300 people gathered outside Germantown ArtHaus for the unveiling of artist Keisha Whatley’s newest creation: Philly’s First Juneteenth Mural.
The 1,100-square-foot painting took two and a half months to complete, and it’s meant to commemorate the events of June 19, 1865, when, a little more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, people in Galveston, Texas, were finally able to access their freedom. When Whatley was tasked with commemorating the historic event, she refused to create a mural that only portrayed enslavement.
