Austin Juneteenth parade brings families to the heritage district
Austin marked Juneteenth with a Friday parade through the African American Cultural Heritage District. Families, local groups and city officials took part in a celebration with deep roots in Texas and Austin.
The parade included high school bands, dance groups, churches, local businesses, city officials and Buffalo Soldier reenactors honoring the all Black U.S. Army unit formed after the Civil War. Children along the route also got a familiar parade highlight: candy tossed from participants.
Juneteenth marks the 1865 arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston with news that enslaved people were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The holiday became federal in 2021, but local families described decades of Austin parade traditions passed across generations.