Under a blistering sun on Friday, Congo Square pulsed with a mood of celebration and defiance.
New Orleans’ seventh annual Juneteenth Festival drew hundreds of people with rows of food and artisan vendors, a second-line parade and performances by local musicians.
As they gathered to celebrate the freeing of the last enslaved African Americans on June 19, 1865, organizers and festival-goers alike described this year’s gathering as a call to action in the ongoing fight for Black civil rights. They pointed to recent moves by state lawmakers — a new congressional map and the elimination of several elected positions — that reduced Black political representation.
“We have to act to stay free,” said Malik Bartholomew, a board member of the event’s organizer, the Afro-Indigenous Society, in a speech invoking the West African Yoruba people’s àṣẹ tradition to honor Black ancestors and civil rights leaders…