CLEVELAND, Ohio — As crowds gather on Mall C in downtown Cleveland for a daylong celebration of Juneteenth, the city is once again honoring the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black Americans in Texas were finally freed — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Now in its fourth year, the MetroHealth Cleveland Juneteenth Freedom Fest is underway with a full slate of performances, family activities, local vendors and conversations about Black health and history. The free, family-friendly event runs from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday. While the event was expected to draw thousands, rainy weather early in the day appeared to have suppressed turnout, before skies began to clear around noon.
The annual Juneteenth celebration was born out of Cleveland’s response to the 2020 racial justice protests, when a coalition of civic and cultural organizations created the #VoicesofCLE art initiative to uplift the community and amplify Black voices. That same energy carried into 2021, when MetroHealth and dozens of local partners quickly launched the first Freedom Fest with just six weeks of planning. It has since grown into a major cultural gathering, drawing about 10,000 people last year…