On a rainy Thursday morning in Chilhowee Park, Dorothy Sharon and two other volunteers with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission directed people attending the parade to their designated positions. Moments before the parade stepped off, the heavy rain stopped. The stormy sky began to clear.
“Rain or shine, [the parade] don’t stop,” Sharon said. “I’m looking up at my ancestor’s sacrifice. And these brittle bones, it don’t matter. If I want to walk, I’m going to walk.”
The Martin Luther King Jr. Parade stepped off at Chilhowee Park and ended at Walter Hardy Park, where vendors and live entertainment were set up for the Juneteenth Celebration. Both events are organized by the commission.
Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War. The name of the holiday refers to June 19, 1865, when thousands of Union troops entered Galveston, Texas to inform the last group of enslaved people in the southern United States that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation was signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.
“It's being proud of finally being officially free,” said Brieta Davis, a spectator.
The parade route is about a mile and half long. Over 60 Churches, local nonprofits and businesses, and schools participated with floats, cars and musical groups, including Austin East High School’s marching band.
Shirliece Lundy observed the parade across from Austin East High School.
“It's a sense of freedom celebrating African American culture,” she said. “I'm glad we get to celebrate it as it wasn't always celebrated.”
Participants handed out candy, water and beads to spectators like Jamier Rorex.
“This is our Fourth of July,” he said.
