Many Activities for Youth Will Be at This Year’s Juneteenth Festival!
by Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
Hey, community, we know that many of you had or still have some concerns and comments regarding the running, pushing and fighting that many of our youths got caught up in, because once the big, opening Juneteenth Parade was over, there was not enough activities to engage the kids, especially those who were in their pre teens or older.
Thus, in previous years, the young participants would assemble in the areas west of the wading pool. Since there was very little vending or the selling of merchandise going on, over there, the young’uns got restless and the taunting, heckling or actual fistfights started to happen. This writer had heard that some of these Juneteenth Festival Fights are even organized and planned months before we have our historic and world-famous Juneteenth Festival.
The fact is, our Buffalo Juneteenth Festival and Parade is either the largest or the second largest festival, behind Galveston, Texas! The current Juneteenth Board of Directors and some of the original founders of the organization such as Luther Burnette, Eugene Pierce, Roosevelt Wardlaw, Judson Price, Doug Ruffin, Jr., Enid Wright and Marcus Brown, are working hard to make the Juneteenth Parade and Festival an enjoyable and educational holiday for all of Buffalo and Western New York.
So, in order for us to do this, we board members decided to solicit younger persons with a history of volunteerism and community engagement and public service, to apply for the vacant positions that needed to be filled in order for Juneteenth of Buffalo to be in compliance with our bylaws and to reassure our funding and community partners that we are a positive and much needed asset in the support and education of our two most vulnerable population- our senior citizens and our youth. The call for new members was put out and was answered by a great group of younger activists that included Patrick Cray, Nichelle Brown, Kelly Dumas, Annette King, Shola Clark, Michael T.A. Smith, Franchelle Parker and Christal Peacock. This energetic group of loud and proud Juneteenth supporters are busy planning activities that will help to attract our young men and women and provide alternatives to some of the destructive behaviors exhibited by a few of them, in past years.
The Juneteenth celebration began in 1865, the year slavery was officially abolished in the state of Texas. It took union soldiers from January 1, 1865, to January 19th of that same year, to let the formerly enslaved people from Africa know that they were now free. The Juneteenth name came from the mandate that the celebration must happen on the days between the 13th and the 19th: hence the name, Juneteenth. And, while I am on this subject, the City of Buffalo Juneteenth Festival is celebrating its 50th Anniversary by hosting a fantastic Juneteenth 50th Anniversary Gala at the Classic V Banquet & Conference Center, 2425 Niagara Falls Blvd, Amherst, NY, June 5, 2026. We hope to see you there.