Tazewell Juneteenth celebrations fosters fellowship and togetherness

TAZEWELL, VA (WVNS) – The Tazewell community has been celebrating Juneteenth before it even became a federal holiday.

During the 2025 edition of their Juneteenth celebrations, they took over Main Street for Saturday’s events and continued events Sunday with a community Juneteenth Worship Service inside at Nuckolls Hall.

Jaden Redd is one of the coordinators with the Tazewell Juneteenth Committee. She explained there was a special spirit in the air.

“I feel like [the worship service] is probably the most important part of the whole weekend due to the fact that faith, God, Jesus, and everything in between. Spiritual songs is what brought our ancestors through and brought us together as a community. I feel like it is so important to never leave God out. Always involve Him in anything and everything that you possibly can and that you do,” said Redd.

Minister Tim Moore brought the message for this Juneteenth service. He spoke about the importance of faith – how it sustained the black community over the years and how it has empowered them to continually overcome.

This service brought together folks of all races to fellowship and ultimately celebrate the end of African American slavery.

“Throughout history in this country, it has always taken a conglomeration of the races to come together to benefit everybody. That is what the Bible teaches us, that neither Jew nor Greek nor bond nor free – we are all one in Christ Jesus,” said Minister Moore.

Coordinator Jaden Redd is a little younger than most other coordinators of major events. The committee reached out to her for help and she finally said yes.

“I love history. I love being involved. I really like to see a smile on everybody in the community’s [faces], especially the elders. The elders should be able to take a seat and the younger generation get out and be able to do more in the community besides just going out and having a Friday night or going out and having a Saturday night party. I feel like clean fun and clean involvement is very important in the world today,” added Redd.

Redd said it was a great experience helping this time around and hopes to do it again in years to come.