San Francisco celebrated its first Juneteenth festival Saturday with a parade and other activities in the Fillmore Neighborhood and beyond.
The main event of the way was the parade, taking off from the Market and Spear streets and heading toward the Civic Center.
Starting at the same time was the Juneteenth SF Freedom Festival in the Fillmore district, which had live music, a fashion show and showcased food and products from black chefs and business owners.
Mayor London Breed said the event was a chance for people to learn.
“So when we make investments and we support the black community, it can’t just be a sign posted on your window that says ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Breed said. “It’s ‘What are you doing?’ ‘How are you investing?,’ ‘How are you supporting the investments?,’ and all of the things we’re trying to do to turn the lives of African-Americans in San Francisco and the Bay Area around.”
A separate event called Juneteenth on the Waterfront took place at the Ferry Plaza. The pop-up featured black entrepreneurs showcasing their specialty foods and other goods, as well as cooking demonstrations.
It was an early celebration of Juneteenth, which is actually on June 19. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
Although many associate slavery's end with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, in practice the proclamation was often only enforced by the arrival of the Union Army in Confederate territories. So Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared the 250,000 enslaved black people in the state to be free.
In 2021, President Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
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