Commemorating & Celebrating Juneteenth 2026 in Images





Yes indeed, a people that don't require a state or nation to recognize a day we have been celebrating and commemorating on our own for more than a century.
My great uncle and aunt celebrated religiously every year. This is where I learned it. I can remember getting up early as a child watching my great uncle barbecue. He would get up at 4 a.m. slow cook the meats over a fire that he dug a hole in the ground as a pit. We made ice cream with the hand cranked freezer...that was work.
 
My great uncle and aunt celebrated religiously every year. This is where I learned it. I can remember getting up early as a child watching my great uncle barbecue. He would get up at 4 a.m. slow cook the meats over a fire that he dug a hole in the ground as a pit. We made ice cream with the hand cranked freezer...that was work.
On my mother's side, my grandmother was born in 1907 and my grandfather in 1901. When I was a kid Juneteenth never approached without a plan to celebrate it. Whether at home or a big park celebration it was celebrated.

Looking back, I realize while we had a good time, as children, no one gathered us to tell us the significance of the day.

Every year it rolled around that BBQ, watermelon and soda came with it. My grandfather stopped Q'ing by the time I came around, but my older sisters said he would clean out a ditch, throw a big rack over it and make some of the best Q in Texas.
 
On my mother's side, my grandmother was born in 1907 and my grandfather in 1901. When I was a kid Juneteenth never approached without a plan to celebrate it. Whether at home or a big park celebration it was celebrated.

Looking back, I realize while we had a good time, as children, no one gathered us to tell us the significance of the day.

Every year it rolled around that BBQ, watermelon and soda came with it. My grandfather stopped Q'ing by the time I came around, but my older sisters said he would clean out a ditch, throw a big rack over it and make some of the best Q in Texas.
Hence the name pit...BBQ pit.
 



I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to Houston, Texas in 1975. 😢
That sounds right, traveling to and fro is how most learned about it back then. Occasionally, Jet or Ebony Magazine would feature a story about it. A lot was and a lot still remains unknown to most people.

In Houston, land for Emancipation Park in Third Ward was purchased in 1872 by black folks to facilitate large gatherings like Juneteenth. One of buyers of the land was the late Reverend Jack Yates, the person Jack Yates High School is named after. This past Juneteenth, more than 150 years later, celebrations are still taking place there.

Stop by for an hour or two next year. This is was part of the festivities there for Juneteenth 2026:

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That sounds right, traveling to and fro is how most learned about it back then. Occasionally, Jet or Ebony Magazine would feature a story about it. A lot was and a lot still remains unknown to most people.

In Houston, land for Emancipation Park in Third Ward was purchased in 1872 by black folks to facilitate large gatherings like Juneteenth. One of buyers of the land was the late Reverend Jack Yates, the person Jack Yates High School is named after. This past Juneteenth, more than 150 years later, celebrations are still taking place there.

Stop by for an hour or two next year. This is was part of the festivities there for Juneteenth 2026:


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I went to my first Juneteenth celebration in 1976 in Emancipation Park, which looks a lot different now that it did then.
 
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