Juneteenth celebrations are starting early in Montgomery this weekend.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States that celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The holiday commemorates when Army Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in Texas, the last state of the Confederacy with institutional slavery.
The holiday became federal on June 17, 2021, and is the first new one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was implemented in 1983. While the holiday is every June 19, the city of Montgomery will start the festivities early with an event at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.
The museum will host an event on Saturday, June 17, starting at the John and Joyce Caddell Sculpture Garden. Emily Stewart Thomas, the head of learning and programs at the museum, said this event is hosted to highlight African American culture and creativity in the area.
"We view this as a way for us to again celebrate the arts community here in the River Region while remembering and commemorating our country's history," she said.
While the event starts at 9 a.m. with a parade starring the G.W. Carver High School band and flag team. Participants are encouraged to come at 8:30 a.m. to pick up flags and noisemakers at the gate. Local musician Jonathan Michael will also perform throughout the event.
The occasion will also feature a community mural by Birmingham native E. L. Chisolm who’s a Black artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Thomas said Chisolm will lead a collaborative mural project leading up to Saturday with a reveal of the completed mural near the end of the event.
"We invite the public to come out and watch this mural kind of evolve and come together. It's a really beautiful, colorful celebration of Black farmers and the prosperity and joy that comes from that culture," she said.
Thomas said she encourages visitors to watch Chisolm work on the mural and contribute to it by painting a small area on Saturday during the festivities. The happening will also feature live music from local artists and crafts for everyone.
"This is a family-friendly event where we are going to have music and arts and art making on full display," Thomas said. "This is really at the heart of what we do here at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, celebrating creativity. And on this special day, really commemorating African American and Black artists in lots of different ways."
Participants can also go inside the museum to visit the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit “The Bias Inside Us,” two exhibitions of youth art by local students from Valiant Cross Academy and the MMFA’s Teen Arts and Activism Camp.
Saturday’s event is free and ends at 11 a.m. For more information, visit Juneteenth 2023 - MMFA
