Intermittently inclement weather didn’t stifle Juneteenth festivities downtown on Monday. Local nonprofit Band of Brothers hosted its seventh annual Juneteenth Augusta at the Augusta Common.
Hosted by singer April Sampé and local spoken word artist Sa Jules, the celebration drew crowds along the 8th and 9th street block. There were plenty of vendors and food trucks, inflatables for the little ones and musical performers. Hip-hop group Goodie Mob and Atlanta band The Red Sample were among the featured artists.
The festival, like the day, commemorates June 19, 1865 — when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas — as a holiday celebrating the liberation of enslaved African Americans.
Band of Brothers first coordinated Juneteenth Augusta in 2017, four years before Congress made Juneteenth a federal holiday as a means of educating Augustans about the day.
“It started out small, like all movements do,” said Travis “Brotha Trav” Wright, poet, performing artist and co-founder of Band of Brothers.
Wright recalls the inaugural festival, held at Pendleton King Park, when the group was “proud of having 150 people” attending.
Last year, Band of Brothers partnered with the city to organize the event, as it did this year, and drew some 10,000 attendees.
“Not only did that awareness about Juneteenth grow locally, but it grew nationally; the world became aware of Juneteenth,” said Wright. “ So throughout that process, in seven years, the city has gotten behind us.”
This time of year now finds several Juneteenth observances throughout the city, including the Augusta Museum of History.
Band of Brothers’ Juneteenth Augusta is now the city’s official event celebrating the holiday. Wright, an Augusta native, sees this as an opportunity for the Garden City to draw more visitors by being on the vanguard of major public celebrations of Emancipation Day.
“What excites me is [that] Augusta is a destination for Juneteenth,” he said. “In order for us to grow, just like any other city, tourism has to be a part of it; and not just during the Master’s. So this is becoming that.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
