Juneteenth 84 [caption title]

San Francisco, 1984. Very good plus.. Screen-printed poster, printed in green, red, and gold on glossy black cardstock, 23 x 17.5 inches. Very minor creasing and wear. A visually-arresting poster created for a Juneteenth musical celebration and parade in San Francisco in 1984. The central visual of the poster is a reproduced portrait of a famous image of Isom Dart, described here as "Outlaw, Gunfighter, Gang Leader, Cattlerustler, Community Protector." The eight bands playing the event were the Johnny Hartsman Blues Band, Demons of the Mind, Mystic Youth & I Skeeda, All the Kings Men, The Champion Band, Stellar, Imani, and the Galaxy Show Band. The event, touted as an "Emancipation Celebration," took place over two weekend days in June at the San Francisco Rodeo. The bottom of the poster states that the event was "Partially funded by the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund."

Juneteenth celebrations have been going on since the end of the Civil War, when Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas and Major General Gordon Granger announced General Order No. 3: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." Since that moment, annual Juneteenth celebrations began in Black churches and through the Freedman's Bureau, and have been part of the fabric of many African American communities in Texas and across the United States. Juneteenth has gained even wider awareness after becoming a federal holiday on June 17, 2021.

Isom (or Isam) Dart (1858-1900) was a renowned Black cowboy of the American West, and was all the descriptors used on the present poster and more, including ranch hand, bronco buster, horse thief, and vigilante. Dart was born on his family's farm in Seguin, Texas, worked at the famous Goodnight Ranch, and drove cattle north to Wyoming. Dart was shot to death on October 3, 1900 by persons unknown outside his cabin near Browns Peak during the Colorado Range Wars; famed scout detective Tom Horn has long been suspected of pulling the trigger on Dart. We could locate no other examples of this eye-catching Juneteenth poster from California.