Sunday, June 19th marked the 40th Anniversary for Milwaukee’s celebration of Juneteenth Day. Despite the heavy rain in the morning, the parade opened the daylong celebration down Martin Luther King Drive. The rain eventually stopped and the streets filled with people celebrating through dance, music, food and other activities that filled the day. The annual Juneteenth Day Celebration is a national event commemorating when freedom was proclaimed to all enslaved people of African descent in the South by Union General Granger on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, more than two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. June 19th is a state holiday and is officially recognized as Juneteenth Independence Day in America by the President and Congress of the United States. (Photos by Robert A. Bell and Pat A. Robinson)
