Meet Miss Juneteenth Oregon

Peoples' granddaughter, Jenelle Jack, now leads the organization that puts on Portland's annual Juneteenth festival and parade. Five years ago she added a year-round program for young Black women, culminating in the selection of Miss Juneteenth.

Why it matters: 16-year-old Princess Fletcher, crowned this year, told Axios that the program is an empowering space where she can be herself, with peers and adult guidance — "a togetherness with a bunch of people who look like me."

• "Just betterment of young Black women and empowering them."

Details: Fletcher moved to Corvallis from Nigeria when her mother enrolled at Oregon State University, and to Portland in seventh grade.

• She's a three-sport athlete at McDaniel High — track and field, basketball, and cheering next fall, when she'll be a junior.
• She loves math, chemistry and history, and placed third in the student poetry slam Verselandia in April.

Fletcher sees Juneteenth as a connection to history, culture and Black greatness. She's glad it finally became an official national and state holiday.

• "We're growing together as a country to be able to recognize that," she told Axios.

What's next: She's in the Juneteenth parade Saturday, starting at 11am from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.

• She may later compete in the national Miss Juneteenth competition, which Oregon's Aceia Spade won in 2021.

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