A national holiday celebration for Juneteenth is open to individuals across the community to gather and celebrate freedom and the end of chattel slavery — the system that considered people as property to be bought and sold — at Olde City Park.

The free event, now in its fourth annual iteration, will be hosted from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 17, two days before the federally recognized holiday is observed. The event is hosted through a collaboration between the Juneteenth Organization of Wylie, Credit Union of Texas, Wylie Police Department and the city of Wylie.

The Wylie Juneteenth Organization is a nonprofit organization made up of volunteers and one of the main organizers for the event that celebrates freedom and diversity within Wylie. LaTonya Johnson, the co-chairperson of the event, said there will be plenty of games, free food, vendors representing several Black-owned businesses in the area and a historical education area.

“It’s going to feature some historical artifacts as well as some interviews with the first Black residents of Wylie,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be more interactive and immersive this year.”

Wylie High School Principal Bryan Alexander will also be a live DJ along with musical performances from blues artist Captain Jack Watson, the band Songbird and a spoken word performance.

Although Juneteenth has been a Texas holiday since the 1970s, it remains a relatively new federally observed date, which began in 2021. Slavery was ended on paper with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. In Texas, it took longer for the provisions to be enforced as news of abolition spread slowly, which was deep in the heart of the Confederate States of America.

Juneteenth commemorates the official abolition of chattel slavery for all Americans and began in Texas June, 19, 1865, when occupying Union forces emancipated slaves in Galveston.

“I think it’s very important because Juneteenth was a Texas holiday and is now a national holiday,” Johnson said. “I think a lot of people trivialize it by saying it’s when the last people who were slaves were free. It’s really a true freedom day because the last slaves in the farthest part of the Union found out they had been freed from chattel slavery.”

To sign up for the event, use the organizer’s Eventbrite page to claim a free ticket.

For the full story, see the May 31 issue of The Wylie News.