Juneteenth celebrations continued Saturday in the City of Johnstown with a parade and salute to war veterans of color.
U.S. Army Maj. Bruce Jordan, of Johnstown, delivered a Juneteenth speech that moved listeners at Johnstown’s Central Park while also teaching them things they may not have known about the service of Black soldiers.
He directed the crowd’s attention to a three-story building behind him at the corner of Locust Street and Gazebo Place.
The building, with relief sculptures of cannons and rifles on its exterior, was a meeting place built by the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Civil War veterans.
Johnstown’s post, The Emmory Fisher Post no. 30, was named after Emmory Fisher.
“He was a second lieutenant from Company D, United States Colored Troops,” Jordan said. “He was killed in 1864 in Petersburg, Va. He was a black man, and he was also a Johnstown resident, and that building is named after him.”
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