Brooklyn welcomes George Floyd statue as city celebrates Juneteenth with music, marches, parades and protest

NEW YORK — A Black Brooklyn teenager, after marching in a drumline to celebrate the debut of Juneteenth as a national holiday, viewed the festivities as a move in the right direction.

“It’s a good step, a good step for getting justice for black people,” said Emmanuel Georges, 15, after the celebratory Saturday morning event in Grand Army Plaza. “It was good vibes, these young black kids, young black youth doing their things.”

A six-foot statue of George Floyd was unveiled to cheers in Flatbush and marchers crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan’s Black Lives Matter Plaza as New Yorkers marked the first federally recognized Juneteenth.

“I hope today you have planted a seed within yourself of self-reflection and how to be kind and loving,” said march organizer Valerie Walker. “If we love each other, we can do this. We need justice. All people should have a vested interest in justice.”

An enthusiastic crowd turned out to hear Floyd’s brother Terrence, wearing a Yankees cap and a T-shirt with his brother’s name, speak after the debut of artist Chris Carnabuci’s homage to the man killed beneath the knee of a Minnesota police officer.

“I’m so grateful,” said Terrence Floyd, standing beneath his sibling’s towering likeness. “The situation that happened to my brother could have happened to anyone ... I love you all. We have to understand our freedoms.”

The Floyd statue will stand at Flatbush Junction for several weeks before being moved to Union Square in Manhattan.

The first national Juneteenth celebration marked the June 19, 1865, announcement in Galveston, Texas, that the nation’s slaves were finally freed.

In Harlem, the day was observed with the 28th Annual Juneteenth Parade, with floats and marching bands passing residents old and new on the sidewalks.

The Coalition for Educational Justice, in its event at the Manhattan plaza, called for additional city funding for cultural changes going forward in city education.

“There have been zero announcement about what curriculum will come out to support students learning about Juneteenth,” said activist Natasha Capers. “Our stories, our histories, our lineages are being ignored in our school system — even though 85% of our students make up the classes.”

Samiyah Leandre, 17, was in a slightly more optimistic mood after joining the drumline before a crowd of about 100 people.

“It’s a little step, a little progress for the Black community, because of course there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be changed for Black people,” Leandre said. “This is one step that has been taken, which is really great ... for us to have opportunity where Juneteenth is actually a national holiday, I feel it’s kind of representing us more.”