Kansas City’s annual Juneteenth parade took place Saturday as music blared throughout the route that weaved and stretched from Benton Boulevard and along 18th Street and into the historic Jazz District at The Paseo.
Along the parade route, hundreds of onlookers cheered, danced, and partied as a steady stream of drill teams, dance groups, floats, and community groups celebrated the festivities recognized the holiday commemorating the day news of emancipation reached enslaved Black people in Texas.
This year marked the seventh annual JuneteenthKC Cultural Parade. The event is one of three events organized by JuneteenthKC, a local nonprofit organization.
Alvin Brooks, a longtime community activist, was named Mr. Juneteenth. The designation recognizes Brooks, who helped create the AdHoc Group Against Crime in 1977, for his decades of civic and social activism in Kansas City.
“It is an honor to be out here and see all these people come together for Juneteenth and how it has grown,” Brooks said. “This is a great day for Kansas City and I am so happy I have lived to see it.”
Marjorie Williams, former Hickman Mills School District superintendent, served as the parade’s grand marshal.
Juneteenth commemorates the event in 1865, several months after the Civil War, when Black enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were notified that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation freed enslaved people in the states that had joined the Confederacy. The 13th Amendment, which formally ended slavery, was passed in December 1865.
The parade began with members from the Kansas City Fire Department riding on top of a fire engine with horns and sirens blaring to the excited cheers of children lining the streets along the route.
As the early morning storm clouds began to break and the sun came out, temperatures began to rise. Workers from Evergy, one of the parade sponsors, passed out paper fans and ice cream to attendees.
The parade also hosted the winners of the third annual Miss Juneteenth Pageant, the first event held during the Juneteenth celebration in Kansas City.
Guests were treated to a performance by the Zulu Connection Stilt Dancers who traveled from New Orleans to take part in the parade. The group, dressed in traditional African costumes, drummed and danced while several towered above the crowd on top of stilts.
A wide gathering of local Black fraternities and sororities also participated in the parade, which highlighted their community and civic work.
As each float and car passed, an event organizer Makeda Peterson directed traffic at the end of the parade route while thanking the parade participants.
Peterson is the daughter of the late Horace Peterson who founded the Black Archives of Mid-America in 1974 and brought Juneteenth to Kansas City in 1980.
“Each year it gets bigger and busier,” said Peterson as she hopped on an all-terrain vehicle and began to travel to the other end of the parade route.
The Juneteenth Heritage Festival will occur on June 15 in the 18th and Vine entertainment district, featuring music performances, vendors, and other festivities.
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