Even reenactors in heavy period uniforms took to the streets for the flag raising at Dillaway-Thomas House in Eliot Square and the parade that followed, ending at the National Center for Afro-American Artists on Walnut Street for a Juneteenth Emancipation Observance Program.
“We couldn’t not be here. It’s really important that people appreciate what happened on Juneteenth,” Dane Elliott-Lewis — a member of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment Company A, a Civil War reenactment group — told The Boston Globe. “It’s really important that people appreciate what happened on Juneteenth.”
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil War, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was designated a federal holiday in 2021.
Below, images from Wednesday’s festivities in Roxbury.
It was a challenging day to hold a Juneteenth Celebration and Parade, but reenactors were undeterred. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff George Brown, a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, takes a swig of water from his canteen in the shade during Wednesday’s celebration. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Emmett Bell-Sykes, a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, takes part in a flag raising at the Dillaway-Thomas House in Eliot Square. – John Tlumacki / Globe StaffJohzias Figueroa, 4, lies down in the shade on a sidewalk as he waits for the start of the Juneteenth parade in Roxbury. – John Tlumacki / Globe StaffThe Juneteenth parade heads out of Elliot Square in the heat Wednesday. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Charlotte Morton, 3, puts the hat back on her dad Alvin’s head in Eliot Square Wednesday. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Euronna Taylor wears a Juneteenth flag in her hair as she watches the opening ceremony for Wednesday’s Juneteenth parade at the Dillaway-Thomas House in Eliot Square. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Tanya Boyd wipes the sweat from her face at the start of Wednesday’s sweltering Juneteenth parade in Roxbury. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Liliana Monteiro, 10, wears a wet towel on her head to beat the heat during Wednesday’s parade. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Oulimata Diarra, 5, and her friend Jacquami Pierre, 5, take shelter from the hot sun under an umbrella as they wait for the Juneteenth parade to start. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff Ziya Pye, 9, stands up through a sunroof during the Juneteenth Celebration and Parade in Roxbury. – John Tlumacki / Globe Staff
Note: Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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