Prairie Village’s third annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration Saturday at Harmon Park celebrated diversity and freedom, complimented by live music, games and various vendors.
“Our objective is to educate,” said Dennis Solis, vice president of STAND Up for Black Lives+, one of the organizations sponsoring the event, along with the city, the Johnson County chapter of the NAACP and Village Presbyterian Church.
“There’s been very little diversity in Prairie Village for years, but diversity enhances a community and it builds a community,” Solis added.
Through performances and family-centered entertainment, the event aimed to build an atmosphere that was inclusive while also attuned to Johnson County’s troubled history with race, discrimination and housing segregation.
“We don’t think this addresses all the issues. But it does say to people outside the community, ‘Please come and be a part,” Solis said.
A performance from the band Funk Syndicate, along with face painting, balloon animals and carnival games all made for an environment that brought people together.
Roughly 200 people turned out for the event, which ended up having good weather following forecasts of possible rain earlier in the day.
“I got to meet a lot of people in the community and get a chance to hear multiple people’s stories,” vendor Blake Franklin said. “It’s cool to see how things are starting to shift and there’s a lot of people that want to see positive change.”
Even though racial injustice continues to be a prevalent issue within minority groups, Prairie Village’s Juneteenth celebration provided a positive place to celebrate race on the still-new federal holiday that marks the day in 1865 that slaves in Galveston, Tex., were told by Union troops that they had been freed two years earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation.
“It’s important for us to see the good that’s happening,” STAND Up for Black Lives+ president George Williams said. “Our focus is on celebrating and that’s the starting point for the other changes that need to happen as it relates to justice.”
More images from Prairie Village’s Juneteenth celebration:
