Clad in heavy wool uniforms beneath the blazing sun, an honor guard of Buffalo Soldiers reenactors led the Juneteenth parade through Central East Austin on Thursday, kicking off one of many celebrations held across the city to commemorate the holiday. The soldiers, portraying the first Black U.S. Army regiments formed after the Civil War, marched with solemn pride, bringing history to life for onlookers lining Chicon Street.
“This is about remembering,” said Selton Williams, president of the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers of Austin. “If you forget your history, you’re doomed to make the same mistakes over.” Williams emphasized the importance of honoring both the pain of the past and the joy of emancipation: “Juneteenth is about the proudness and the expression of joy.”
The parade and subsequent festival at Rosewood Park were part of Central Texas Juneteenth, one of the region’s longest-running annual events sponsored by the Greater East Austin Youth Association. Like many Juneteenth observances across the city, it commemorated June 19, 1865 — the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim freedom for enslaved people, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation…