MANSFIELD — The general public is encouraged to join in celebrating the annual Mansfield Juneteenth Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 15 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The free, day-long celebration will kick-off with the parade at 10 a.m. at Marion Avenue and Park Avenue West featuring marching bands, drumlines, and dance groups from throughout the state, local churches, businesses, organizations, and political candidates.
Following the parade will be the festival in Central Park in downtown Mansfield featuring live music and entertainment, a vendor marketplace, food trucks, community choirs, health screenings, a kid’s zone, wine tasting, line dancing and more.
The event will also be raising awareness about health equity, voter education and engagement, economic empowerment, and education.
This year’s celebration includes a “Juneteenth Quilt Raffle” for Scholarship, “Free Kids Haircuts,” and book signing featuring authors Effie James, Teana Sykes, Romeo Travis and Obesida Cooke.
The Juneteenth Planning Committee would like to recognize the Juneteenth Gold and Empowerment Sponsors:
Juneteenth Gold Sponsors — Gary Feagin-State Farm Insurance, United States Army.
Empowerment Sponsor: Park National Bank.
Also, a special thanks to our local churches, businesses and organizations for their support and contributions.
For more information to participate in the parade or festival contact Princess Endowment Founder, Enisia Lee, 419-610-6334.
History of Juneteenth
On June 19, 1865, about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended.
General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln.
The holiday, observed on June 19, is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, and has been celebrated by communities across the country for more than a century.
In 2021, President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Juneteenth is the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.