‘We are one’: San Antonio celebrates annual Juneteenth Festival

2026 marks 30 years since San Antonio’s first organized Juneteenth festival

Published: June 20, 2026 at 3:34 PM

SAN ANTONIO – More than 100 people participated during San Antonio’s annual Juneteenth parade on Saturday, by traveling nearly three miles to honor freedom, history and community.

The San Antonio Juneteenth Coalition started the day at Sam Houston High School with the parade, which included people walking, riding in cars, on horseback and on floats. The celebration continued at Comanche Park No. 2 with food, vendors, music and poetry.

Lashanda Robinson, who attended the parade and festival, said showing up is an important part of honoring the holiday.

“For me, that’s the best part, because it actually is an action,” Robinson said. “You being able to express your belief in action, showing up and being present.”

Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston and announced that more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were free.

The announcement came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

“We are the one, there’s no separation,” Emma rogers-Jordan, a vendor at the festival, said.

The holiday is widely known as the nation’s “second Independence Day.” This year, the Freedom Coalition of San Antonio is remembering and celebrating the contributions of African American trailblazers over the past 250 years.

“It’s a really important reminder for all of us to be thinking about how we can also always uplift communities that have traditionally been underserved, if not completely written out of history,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said.

Additionally, 2026 marks 30 years since San Antonio’s first organized Juneteenth festival.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he has watched the celebration grow over the years.

“We’ve been out here for some years where it’s very, very empty in some spots and then you get to a bigger crowd,” Salazar said. “But now it’s starting to look like it’s filling in the whole way to where this thing’s going to be as big as any other parade in San Antonio very soon.”

The celebrations continue into next week. The San Antonio Juneteenth Commission will host its annual golf tournament Monday, June 22, followed by its first pickleball tournament Saturday, June 27.

Juneteenth Annual Golf Tournament