What to know about SF's Juneteenth parade and festival
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San Francisco hosted its first official Juneteenth celebration and parade in 2023. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Juneteenth isn't until the 19th but it's coming to San Francisco early with the city's official parade and celebration this weekend.
Why it matters: Even though San Francisco's Black population has dwindled over the past several decades, the city-sanctioned celebration symbolizes freedom for the Black people who are still here, Sheryl Davis, executive director of the city's Human Rights Commission, told KQED.
Driving the news: Saturday's Juneteenth parade begins at 11am on Market and Spear streets and will be immediately followed by a festival at Civic Center Plaza until 6pm.
- The festival will feature live performances from San Francisco rappers Larry June and Stunnaman02, Oakland-based singer Goapele and others.
What they're saying: "The people in the parade are grateful to be seen, whether it's by one person or 1,000," Davis said.
- "And to know the streets were shut down to celebrate their culture — in a town where people often talk about how many Black folks have left the city, but they don't mention the people who still live here."
By the numbers: Black people comprise just 4.6% of San Francisco's 808,000 residents, according to Census data.
- From 1970 to 2010, the city's Black population decreased by 50% to less than 49,000 as a result of urban renewal, redlining, increased housing costs and more, according to a 2020 San Francisco Human Rights Commission report.
Context: Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
- It recognizes the day the last enslaved people in Texas learned about their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865.
- That was about two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered in Virginia and more than two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
Flashback: Celebrations began in San Francisco in 1945, when Wesley Johnson, Sr. rode down Fillmore Street on a white horse, according to the city's Juneteenth website.
- Johnson, who came to San Francisco from Texas in the 1920s, sought to bring his "corner of Texas to San Francisco and show them how it's really done."
- But the celebration didn't become city-sponsored until last year, when San Francisco hosted its first official parade and celebration.
What's next: Beyond Saturday's celebration, there will be a host of other Juneteenth events throughout the city this month, including a festival in the Fillmore on June 15 and one in Bayview Hunters Point on June 16.