Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
- A North Carolina plantation had an event that honored "white refugees" planned for Juneteenth.
- It has since been canceled following backlash, The Washington Post reported.
- Juneteenth is celebrated as a commemoration of the end of slavery.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A North Carolina Plantation canceled an event that would have told the stories of displaced "white refugees" on Juneteenth after backlash, The Washington Post reported.
June 19th, or Juneteenth, is commemorated by many Black Americans as an independence day that celebrates the day that Union army soldiers informed the last enslaved African Americans that the Emancipation Proclamation had established their freedom. It was signed by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier.
The Historic Latta Plantation event was to focus on white refugees who were displaced and "have a story to tell as well."
"Hear how they feel about being freedmen," a now-deleted online blurb said.
The event description said visitors would hear from confederate soldiers and "the massa himself who is now living in the woods."
Late Friday night, backlash continued to be posted on the group's Facebook page.
"Words cannot express the degree of anger, disgust, and disappointment that Latta Plantation elicits through its recent event promotion pictured here," one reviewer wrote.
Mecklenburg County, where the plantation is located, said in a statement Friday that it "has zero tolerance for programs that do not embrace equity and diversity," and said they only became aware of the event through social media.
The county said it was now looking "at its contract with the facility vendor regarding future programming."
Historic Latta Plantation did not respond to Insider's request for comment at the time of publication.