San Jose restaurateur celebrates origins of Juneteenth
Juneteeth culinary celebrations
Since 2018, Jackie’s Place on North First Street in San Jose has been commemorating Juneteenth with century-old family recipes.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Juneteenth commemorates the official end of slavery in the United States. It happened in 1865 in Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Jackie’s Place on North First Street has been around since 2018, and since then has been commemorating Juneteenth with century-old family recipes.
Jackie Jackson, namesake and owner of Jackie’s Place, told KTVU that food has served an important purpose throughout history: bringing people together.
"Absolutely, food is a part of history for my family," Jackson said. "My mom was a cook and chef. She had brothers and sisters. Food is what brought us together."
Jackson said many of the recipes she serves are from her great-grandmother, and that her family is originally from Texas. She said she is proud of being a restaurant owner and hopes others follow in her footsteps.
"I look around and see the diversity, we are doing something right. I feel like we are," Jackson said.
Jackie says she plans to work for about five more years and hopefully retire on her 70th birthday.
Juneteenth in the Bay Area:
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
Professor James Taylor from the University of San Francisco says alot was happening in the Bay Area and San Francisco in the mid 19th century. He says hundreds of black people left San Francisco to find a safer place in British Columbia.
"There were a number of incidents in San Francisco challenging the status of black people who were here," said professor James Taylor.
Then in the early 1900s, Taylor says thousands of black people migrated to San Francisco.
"That coincided with the Jazz Age of the Filmmore section of San Francisco and parts of Los Angeles. The black migration is very important," said Taylor.
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The Source: KTVU reporting