11 powerful photos of Americans celebrating Juneteenth on 1st year it becomes federal holiday

Yi-Jin Yu
Updated ·3 min read

Americans are celebrating two days after President Joe Biden signed into law the bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Juneteenth, observed every June 19, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, when on June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, then the westernmost state in the union, and informed slaves of their emancipation.

Doris Watkins, left, claps with her granddaughter, Zawadi Odhiambo, 4, during a Juneteenth celebration in Florence, Alabama. (Dan Busey / The Times Daily / AP)
Doris Watkins, left, claps with her granddaughter, Zawadi Odhiambo, 4, during a Juneteenth celebration in Florence, Alabama. (Dan Busey / The Times Daily / AP)

This year marks the 156th celebration of Juneteenth, a tradition that has long been upheld in southern states and is now officially observed in 48 states, as well as on the federal level.

Take a look at how people around the country are celebrating Juneteenth this weekend.

Related: For its participants, Miss Juneteenth is more than a beauty pageant. It's a celebration of joy, a remembrance of pain and an honoring of Black girlhood.

Alabama

Vicki Goldston, center, and LaQuanda Simpson, right, play African drums (Dan Busey / The Times Daily / AP)
Vicki Goldston, center, and LaQuanda Simpson, right, play African drums (Dan Busey / The Times Daily / AP)

In Florence, Alabama, about 120 miles northwest of Birmingham, racial justice group Project Say Something hosted their annual Juneteenth Freedom Day Block Party. The celebration included African drumming and live music, spoken word performances, catered food, guest speakers and children's activities, according to a post on the group's Instagram.

Related: The holiday commemorates the day slaves in Texas learned they were free.

Georgia

Johnnie Alston leads the Baltimore All-Stars Marching Unit in Atlanta. (Ben Gray / AP)
Johnnie Alston leads the Baltimore All-Stars Marching Unit in Atlanta. (Ben Gray / AP)

Multiple marching bands, drumlines and performers converged in Georgia's capital on Saturday as the Juneteenth Atlanta Parade & Music Festival got underway. The party kicked off on Friday and runs all weekend long until Sunday at Centennial Olympic Park, one of the central hubs of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Kentucky

A young person writes Juneteenth on a wall in chalk in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry / Getty Images)
A young person writes Juneteenth on a wall in chalk in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry / Getty Images)

At All Nations Worship Assembly in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, folks gathered for a Juneteenth celebration on Saturday. Russell: A Place of Promise, one of the participating organizations, promoted the event on Facebook as a way to support Black-owned businesses and celebrate art and culture.

Michigan

Lexi Watson, 10, of Flint, smiles as she shouts out with joy in downtown Flint, Michigan. (Jake May / MLive.com / AP)
Lexi Watson, 10, of Flint, smiles as she shouts out with joy in downtown Flint, Michigan. (Jake May / MLive.com / AP)

The city of Flint, Michigan hosted a Champions Parade along Saginaw Street on Juneteenth. The parade was part of an initiative to make this weekend's Juneteenth celebrations the largest ever in a city where over 54% of the population identifies as Black or African American, according to U.S. census data from 2019.

Flint resident Tracy Palmer shows off her Juneteenth-inspired nails (Jake May / MLive.com / AP)
Flint resident Tracy Palmer shows off her Juneteenth-inspired nails (Jake May / MLive.com / AP)

New York

Women wait to perform during a free outdoor event organized by The Broadway League during Juneteenth celebrations at Times Square on Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photos)
Women wait to perform during a free outdoor event organized by The Broadway League during Juneteenth celebrations at Times Square on Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photos)

New Yorkers donned their finest for "Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth" shindig, hosted by The Broadway League. The Saturday party featured multiple Broadway stars like Jacqueline B. Arnold, LaVon Fisher-Wilson, Ray Mercer and the cast of Broadway's "The Lion King."

People attend a free outdoor event organized by The Broadway League during Juneteenth celebrations at Times Square on June 19, 2021, in New York City. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP)
People attend a free outdoor event organized by The Broadway League during Juneteenth celebrations at Times Square on June 19, 2021, in New York City. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP)

Oklahoma

A father and son take a selfie at the Black Wall Street Memorial (Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images)
A father and son take a selfie at the Black Wall Street Memorial (Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images)

In May, Tulsa, Oklahoma, marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. A month later, residents in the city are celebrating the Tulsa Juneteenth Festival from June 17 through June 20 in Greenwood, the primarily Black district that was home to Black Wall Street and targeted a century ago.

Texas

Opal Lee, 94, walks towards downtown Fort Worth, Texas from Evans Avenue Plaza (Amanda McCoy / Star-Telegram / AP)
Opal Lee, 94, walks towards downtown Fort Worth, Texas from Evans Avenue Plaza (Amanda McCoy / Star-Telegram / AP)
The crowd as Opal Lee walks toward downtown Fort Worth, Texas. (Amanda McCoy / AP)
The crowd as Opal Lee walks toward downtown Fort Worth, Texas. (Amanda McCoy / AP)

Opal Lee, known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth" who never gave up the fight to make the holiday a national day of observance, led a massive crowd on Saturday in a 2 1/2-mile walk to downtown Forth Worth, Texas. NBC affiliate KXAS reported that the 2 1/2 miles represented the number of years that it took for slaves in Texas to learn of their freedom.