Until just a few years ago, Juneteenth was celebrated only within the Black community, for the most part. Today, it’s a paid holiday at the federal level, and in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, too.
Pittsburgh’s biggest Juneteenth festival has grown accordingly. This year, the Juneteenth Homecoming Celebration and related events are expected to draw 50,000 or more people Downtown, said William “B” Marshall, who’s been organizing Juneteenth events here for a decade under the auspices of his group Stop the Violence Pittsburgh.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 — the date when the last enslaved Black Americans learned of the end of chattel slavery in the United States.
Pittsburgh’s main Juneteenth celebration runs June 17-19. It will feature live music by nationally touring acts in Point State Park, the annual Jubilee of Freeman parade, some 100 vendors and more. New this year is Juneteenth in the Square, a concurrent celebration spotlighting mostly local music acts. (Two smaller Juneteenth events organized by Marshall — an expanded version of the Juneteenth Youth Festival, and the new African-American Heritage Day Festival, both in Mellon Park — took place this past weekend.)
Musical headliners at the Point include hip-hop icons Arrested Development and Talib Kweli, R&B group Rose Royce and the storied band War.
The celebration is the first since Ed Gainey was sworn in as Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor. It also continues the event's longstanding focus on voting rights. The annual Jubilee of Freeman Parade — which includes groups from historical re-enactors and Black fraternities and sororities to area politicians — commemorates a big 1870 parade in Pittsburgh hailing passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave Black men the right to vote. A co-grand marshal of this year’s parade is Jacqueline Hamer Flakes, daughter of famed civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
With attempts to restrict voting rights very much in the news across the country, Flakes’ presence is a reminder the fight is not over, Marshall said.
“We thought it’s very crucial to bring her in here and just talk about voting rights in this era of voter suppression,” he said.
This year’s celebration is also occurring amidst an uptick in gun violence. Marshall says community events like Juneteenth can help.
“That’s why I titled the festival this year the Homecoming Celebration,” he said. “Because what we have learned, and what’s been my experience, when you bring multi-generations together, you can try to get them to try to have a little more respect for their own culture and community. Younger people will see there’s a place for them.”
The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. More information on the Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth celebration is here.
