The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The 6th annual Juneteenth Parade & Festival is set to kick off at 11 a.m. on June 13.
The parade will step off from Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street campus before wending its way down Hamilton Street, to Matilda Avenue and ending at Naaman Williams Park, where the festival will follow.
The public is invited to join along the parade route and watch floats from several local and statewide organizations celebrating the Juneteenth Holiday.
This year’s celebration will feature the distinguished Sherlock Dow, an accomplished technology strategist.
This celebration commemorates the richness and strength of Black culture while celebrating community, and will culminate with the annual festival with vendors and entertainment.
The Juneteenth holiday is an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. Though the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves was signed on January 1, 1863, enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay, Texas, learned of their freedom from the Union Army, on June 19, 1865, after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced. Juneteenth is the longest-standing African American holiday observed in the United States.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information about participating in the parade, contact the Somerset County Juneteenth Committee at somersetcountyjuneteenthcommit@gmail.com.
