When state Rep. Tony Exum campaigns door-to-door, he carries a receipt for a poll tax.

It’s dated Feb.24, 1964, and was given to him by a constituent. Poll taxes, a charge that had to be paid to register to vote, along with other methods of preventing blacks from voting in the Jim Crow South such as literacy tests – are a reminder of the importance of observing Juneteenth, Exum says.

“I carry (the poll tax receipt) around with me and when I come upon people that say their vote doesn’t count or ‘I’m not registered,’ then I challenge them,” Exum said. “I challenge them with the historical perspective of why they should vote. And why the people that marched, that demonstrated, that died to give you the right to vote – you honor their legacy.”

An organized celebration of the end of slavery in America was held on Saturday in Colorado Springs for the first time in three years with a community festival at the Hillside Community Center. The gathering, featuring music, food, poetry and speeches, marked Juneteenth, commemorating the emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.

On that day, Union soldiers led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, bringing with them news that the Civil War had ended and that blacks had been freed from slavery.

Two years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves in the rebellious Confederate states with the Emancipation Proclamation. It had little effect, though, until Union troops could enforce it with the end of the war.

The celebration, which included kids dancing to Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” in the community center’s gym while wearing golden sashes inscribed with the words “freedom keeper,” also was a recognition of current racial animosities and inequalities.

“There’s still so much that we need to work on,” said Nicholas Crutcher, who organized this year’s observance.

Crutcher said blacks and other minorities still are victimized by the “cradle to prison pipeline” – the criminalization of young children through unequal discipline in schools that puts them at higher risk of incarceration later in life.

Jameika Matlock, an AmeriCorp summer associate at Hillside, said the key is building a sense of community within the African-American population in Colorado Springs.

“We don’t recognize each other. A big part of being free is seeing yourself in the other person, to help them and just be there for them,” Matlock said.

Members of civil rights groups, the National Association for the Advancement Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership, took part in the Juneteenth observance, which Crutcher likened to a “family reunion.”

“During slavery, so many families were separated from each other,” he said. “And after so many years, some people were able to find their family members. And that’s when the reunions originally started.”