NEW ORLEANS — Black people across the country are celebrating freedom and joy on Wednesday, June 19, and right here in New Orleans Juneteenth events did just that.
Organizers brought the community together to celebrate.
"I came out here today for the splash day because it’s really hot outside and my cousin wanted to get in the water and have some fun," said Carlie Williams.
One way to celebrate freedom is through joy, and there was plenty of joy at the Juneteenth Splash Day in Algiers. With everything from snowballs and cotton candy to bounce houses and face painting.
"I think it's awesome it's great for the Black community for families and kids to have something to do and have something to celebrate," said Jalicia.
Organizers said the Juneteenth celebration at Berhman was sparked by a lack of pools in the area.
"We want to give people a safe haven a safe place to come and enjoy themselves as a family not just kids we want the parents to come chill with their kids eat with their kids and get the community back involved with being a community," said community advocate Michael Willis.
Now it's the second year — the Juneteenth Splash Day aims to do more than celebrate freedom.
"We're losing a lot of our kids to gun violence and crime so right now majority of our events we give are called community engagement," Willis said.
Across the river in Central City, Juneteenth was honored with a similar sentiment. The Ashé Cultural Arts Center launched "Building Community Power".
"We chose Juneteenth to launch it because it is symbolic of this continued fight for liberation we have," said Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, Chief Equity & Executive Officer of Ashé.
Organizers said different community members will be coming together to talk about how new policy can help lift the Black community.
"A full quarter of our occupiable homes in the city sit vacant so there's something we can do about all of those things and we look forward to using our culture and resilience and our determination," Ecclesiastes said. "To create a policy for ourselves that our leaders they have to be accountable to."
Organizers of both events said to honor the past – you have to continue building in the future.
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