Several events are planned in downtown Meridian beginning Friday as the city looks to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S. with its annual Juneteenth Heritage Festival.
The festival will kick of Friday evening with a Black Business Expo and will include a pickleball tournament, a Kidzone at the Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian, a concert and fireworks display and a “Freedom Day” play, all held over the weekend.
The Juneteenth festival will conclude Wednesday, June 19, with the annual Trailblazers recognition and gospel celebration at the Temple Theatre. The 2024 Trailblazers honorees include Big Krit, Coach Bill McFarland, Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Meridian Police Chief Debra Young and Thomas Walker.
All events are free and open to the public.
“The City of Meridian is proud to once again present the Juneteenth Heritage Festival, which was recently honored with the Community Engagement Award by the Mississippi Pinnacle Awards,” said Ida Brown, the city’s communications director.
Brown said this year’s festival will commemorate the end of slavery by celebrating local African Americans’ contributions to a more equitable future, plus will offer empowering activities for everyone.
“From the Black Business Expo to a ceremony recognizing local Trailblazers, the city of Meridian’s Juneteenth Heritage Festival offers something for all heritages and ages,” she said.
Juneteenth is considered the longest-running African American holiday in the nation, honoring the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that all enslaved people in the U.S. were free.
More than 250,000 African Americans, who were still being held in slavery in Texas, gained their freedom, in what became known as Juneteenth, or Freedom Day.
While President Joe Biden signed legislation officially making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, the city of Meridian has been commemorating Juneteenth for more than two decades.
Earlier this year, the city and its Juneteenth Heritage Festival received the Vernon Dahmer Community Engagement Award during the second annual Mississippi Pinnacle Awards Gala held in Hattiesburg.
This year’s Juneteenth Heritage Festival will kick off Friday with the Black Business Expo at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, located on Front Street at the intersection of 22nd Avenue. The expo, to be held from 6-10 p.m., will feature a performance by Latisha Hamilton with music by DJ Tech.
Saturday’s activities will begin early with a pickleball tournament from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. at Sammie Davision Complex with a $1,000 cash prize.
For the young ones, the Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian, in collaboration with the city’s Juneteenth celebration, will be the festival’s designated KidZone, offering free admission Saturday to guests between noon and 4 p.m. The museum’s regular general admission of $10 will apply when checking in before or after the designated KidZone time, according to a press release from MCM-Meridian.
Throughout the day at the museum, self-guided activities in the WonderBox room will include a recycled art activity inspired by Tyree Guyton, a Detroit-based American Expressionist artist who is a proponent of graffiti art and urban environmental art; zinnia drawings inspired by Clementine Hunter, a self-taught Black folk artist from Louisiana; and mosaic art inspired by Alma Thomas, an artist and teacher whose colorful, abstract paintings later in life have been displayed in notable museums and collections.
Other museum activities will include games, face painting, art with local artist Brejenn Allen, book giveaways by the Junior Auxiliary of Meridian and the Meridian Wildcat Wagon, dance sessions with N’Spire Walker, and city collages inspired by New York artist Romare Bearden, renowned for his collages and photomontages.
Three guest readers will conduct storytimes starting with Judge Veldore Young Graham at 1 p.m., Judge Dustin Markham at 2 p.m. and Miss Meridian Jalyssiah Ott at 3 p.m.
On Saturday night, a Juneteenth concert will be held on the city hall lawn, located at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Sixth Street, from 5-11 p.m. Performers will include Breeze, Ms Jody, JL Thompson, Elle Jai, Stewart Marshall, Darius Ewing, Jacob Campbell and Ralph Keys. A fireworks display will conclude the evening and is set to begin at 10:45 p.m.
On Sunday, a Juneteenth gospel play, called “Freedom Day,” will be performed at the Temple Theatre featuring Randy Ferino, Pastor Kevin Temple and Lynn Dixon. Showtime is set for 5 p.m.
This year’s Juneteenth festival will conclude Wednesday, June 19, with the presentation of the Trailblazers honorees and a gospel celebration at the Temple Theatre beginning at 7 p.m. Taking part in the gospel celebration are Sharee Smith, Krista Overby, Pastor Daniel Cooley, Pastor Darius Thames, Lynn Dixon, Shedrick Waters and The Unity Fest Choir, and evangelist Kajsa Cole.