San Francisco city blocks pulsed with celebrations of Black culture and freedom today.
Floats of Black-led organizations, many draped in variations of the Pan African flag, and a group of Black cowboys. The buzz of a church choir and old cars. Juneteenth was in full swing in the city.
It’s one of many Bay Area cities holding Juneteenth celebrations this month, centering Black joy as they commemorate when enslaved Black Texans learned of their freedom in 1865.
San Francisco’s annual event, in its fourth year, started with a parade down Market Street and ended with an hours-long party at Embarcadero Plaza.
Juneteenth, recognized officially on June 19 every year, has only been federally honored since 2021. But Black Americans have long recognized the day’s history, and, this year, the work that still needs to be done.
Sincere Dow, a transit operator with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said that it’s important to never let the day die down.
“I know we have been going back in time it seems like, but it’s important that we remember the progress we have made and try and continue to make progress going forward,” Dow said.
Since President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025, his administration has taken steps to dismantle policies that aim to create more diverse and inclusive institutions.
The National Park Service no longer offers free-entry days for Juneteenth or Martin Luther King Jr. Day, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have been cut, and the Pentagon’s observances of Juneteenth and Black History Month were paused last year.
Rodney Leggett said the Trump administration’s policies are exactly why history needs to be kept alive.
“They’re trying to change the past,” said Leggett, who met his wife 42 years ago at a Juneteenth festival. “They can’t allow people to bury our history by banning books and things of that nature.”
Marie Hobs, who attended the parade in her 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, focused on unity as her reason for showing up. She said she came out for the generations to come.
“To show that African Americans, other cultures and everyone can get together, have a good time and just celebrate excellence,” Hobs said. “Not just Black excellence, but all excellence of people, of being a human race here in America and trying to survive in this economy.”
The cities of Oakland and Antioch, home to some of the region’s largest share of Black residents, hosted their own events this week. At a Friday event put on by the Oakland Museum of California, attendees stressed the importance of honoring a Black history that’s often been erased.
Maxwell Drati told KQED at the event that he wanted to see reparations for Black Americans go further than just money.
“I want to see concentrated efforts by the government to repair the damage they’ve systemically done to our communities,” Drati said.
Antioch Councilmember Monica Wilson, the city’s first Black woman to serve on the City Council, spoke at a city-sponsored event on Friday.
“The hard work, the sweat and the tears to get to today,” Wilson said Friday. “We have so much more work to do.”
Other cities aren’t missing out on the celebration.
Vallejo’s Juneteenth Parade and Festival and Berkeley’s Juneteenth Festival are also taking place this weekend, with other events in Healdsburg, San Jose, Menlo Park and Santa Rosa already having taken place this month.
KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah contributed to this report.
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