Overview: The Juneteenth Jam: It’s a Family Affair, a celebration of freedom, culture, and community, was held at Ferguson Park in Rialto. The event, hosted by Stronger Together Now, Black the Block, and Fentwood Hoops, honored the day when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to inform the last enslaved Black Americans that they were finally free. The celebration included music, local vendors, and youth activities, and serves as a reminder of the ongoing fight for racial justice.
Aryana Noroozi
On a warm Wednesday evening at Ferguson Park, families, friends, and neighbors gathered to celebrate freedom, culture, and community at the Juneteenth Jam: It’s a Family Affair. Hosted by Stronger Together Now, Black the Block, and Fentwood Hoops, the event transformed the park into a vibrant hub of Black joy and remembrance. With music in the air, local vendors lining the walkways and parking lot, and youth shooting hoops or tossing footballs on the grass, the celebration reflected the essence of Juneteenth—a day honoring liberation and resilience, rooted in history and carried forward by the community.
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the day when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation—to inform the last enslaved Black Americans that they were finally free. It is considered the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. While Juneteenth was only officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, Black communities have long honored it as a time to reflect on freedom, resistance, and the ongoing fight for racial justice.
In Rialto, that history lived on through food, music, sports, dancing and socializing. Check out the celebration through the lens of Black Voice News.
