Bakersfield’s Juneteenth celebration kicks off Wednesday at Bakersfield College and continues through the weekend with a series of free and community-focused events organized by the NAACP Bakersfield Chapter.
This year marks the 11th annual celebration, which has grown from small community meetings to a multi-day event drawing crowds across the city.
“From it being just a small situation that was happening at the park, it actually started at some meetings that were going on, and people were coming,” NAACP Bakersfield Chapter President Patrick Jackson said. “We were talking about what Juneteenth meant to us, then it went into the park, and then all of a sudden it turned into a couple of days, then it turned into a 3-day event.”…