ORLANDO, Fla. — As the Central Florida community is celebrating Juneteenth with several festivals and events this weekend, officials are marking issues that they say still remain.

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil war, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth has become more universally recognized beyond Black America. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are a plethora of street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events.

In the Juneteenth exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center, Executive Director Pam Schwartz said thousands of years worth of suffrage and fighting for freedom is on display.

However, State Senator Geraldine F. Thompson said they find themselves still advocating for some of those same rights.

Thompson said issues remain with things like the rights to vote for African Americans.

Trying to vote sparked the 1920 Ocoee massacre in Central Florida, after a man named Moses Norman tried to cast a ballot in the presidential election. That led to dozens of African Americans being killed and eventually pushed out of their community.

While the black vote has come a long way since then, Thompson said it’s still being casted aside today with voter disenfranchisement and things like accessibility, which can be read about at the history center.

“It has a lot to do with loss of prosperity, taking of generational wealth from the black community, it has to do with voting rights,” said Pam Schwartz, Executive Director of the Orange County Regional History Center. “You know we talk about Juneteenth, and emancipation and freedom back in the 1860s, this is an event that sort of reflects back on that history.”

In Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 6505, representatives were asking for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Ocoee massacre and provide relief for descendants of victims.

That was legislation proposed in February 2020. Neither of the bills passed.

However, HB 1213 was signed in June 2020, which would require public schools to teach about the holocaust and explore options on how to teach about the Ocoee massacre.

However, with recent passage of bills focused on ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion education in school, it's unclear if lessons like these would be impacted.