C.B. HANIF AND ERNA DELICE PHOTOS / SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES

The event, among myriad others around South Florida commemorating the arrival of news of emancipation to enslaved Blacks in Galveston, Texas in 1865, contributed to the growing national celebration of the federal holiday President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021,

The association formed in 2022, with the motto “Daring to be Ourselves,” is named for the Hon. Sheree Davis Cunningham, retired judge, who the late Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1993 appointed to the Palm Beach County Court bench, the first-ever African American woman to be seated as a judge in Florida’s 15th Judicial Circuit.

Cunningham, above center, beloved mentor to many association members and others, is flanked by Sandra Powery Moses, president and co-chair, left, and Freddie Menard, YBWL chair and co-chair.

Distinguished attendees included Barbara Pariente, retired former Florida Supreme Court chief justice, below left, shown with Powery; pioneering South Florida attorney Lynn Whitfield, below right, first Black female president of a non-minority Bar association; Salesia Smith-Gordon, the association’s second vice president, and her husband Lawrence Gordon.

Packed with supporters and well-wishers, the event featured the History of Juneteenth; African drumming and dancing by Faith’s Place; poetry by May Reign; an African Attire Fashion Show by Neesha’s Finest Fashions models Teresa Powery, Aneesha Hanif and Cecily Mathis, below right; and Live Art by Shica Hardy, below left.