BUFFALO, N.Y. — Juneteenth in Buffalo is one of the biggest celebrations in the City of Buffalo.
Normally it would be marked with a parade down Genesee that would culminate in a party in Martin Luther King Park. This year the celebration looked a little different, but the organizers of the event say it didn’t take away from the spirit of the event.
2 On Your Side spoke with organizers of the annual event to take about years past and what the celebration looks like now.
Joann Peters is a longtime Board Member for Juneteenth of Buffalo, and she told 2 On Your Side's Karys Belger that today's festivities incorporate much more educational material than the first event that held back in 1976.
"It certainly has evolved into more culturally relevant activities, and information, and specific information about our African history, which wasn't necessarily present during the earlier times," she told 2 On Your Side.
Ras Jomo Akono, the Executive Vice President, explained that the virtual event held this year surpassed even the normal events in years past.
An extra week was added to the festivities in order to accommodate all of the extra content that's been uploaded to the Juneteenth website and Facebook page.
"We also are going to be putting things on our website. You have to remember we have like three performing stages we have a lot of activities that would normally happen during Juneteenth that people normally don't even see."
Juneteenth content will continue to be uploaded to the Juneteenth of Buffalo Facebook and Website through the remainder of the year.
More information can be found here.
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