Denver, CO – On Saturday, June 20, thousands of people took to the streets of Denver to celebrate Juneteenth. As the parade departed from Denver’s Manual High School in the late morning, the participants were met by a sea of onlookers primarily donned in black, green and red. As the procession made its way through the streets of Denver, spectators cheered on the parade by waving and raising their fists.

Miles Thompson, an attendee of the event and chair of the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee, had this to say about the holiday: “This day is the most important day not just for Black history, but for American history as a whole.”

Thompson continued, “The centuries-long struggle for freedom was finally over, a triumphant victory for Black liberation and workers’ rights. Hundreds of slave-led rebellions, uprisings and battles were the driving forces that made abolition possible.”

After about an hour or so, the parade came to an end at the historic Five Points neighborhood in Denver. As the parade turned into a large block party, the smells of soul food and barbecue filled the air. Several blocked-off streets were lined with canopies, food trucks and event stages. The event square was packed with people of all walks of life, including members of Black fraternities and sororities, motorcycle clubs, and political groups, and Black-owned businesses.

Decades ago, Five Points was home to one of Denver's most concentrated populations of Black residents. Before gentrification and redlining campaigns, the neighborhood was the home to many Black-owned businesses and Black churches, schools and residential buildings. Years later, only a fraction of the Black population still lives in Five Points, and the Black businesses that once thrived no longer exist on these blocks. Pushed out by racist policies, the Black community was forced to move east towards Park Hill, located in northeast Denver, leaving Five Points to gentrification. Today, a majority of Black Coloradans living in the Denver Metro Area reside in Park Hill or Aurora. With the continuing demographic changes in the city, Denver’s rich tradition of Black history is often overlooked and underappreciated.

Juneteenth is as important as ever, not just to keep the longest-standing Black holiday alive, but to preserve the contributions of the Black community who shaped Denver into the city that it is today. Thompson states, “The joy expressed by those of us who proudly celebrate Juneteenth carries the weight of a nation that has been forged through centuries of bondage, pain, suffering and genocide. Juneteenth should be a day of celebration for all people; without the sacrifices made by our ancestors, many of the civil rights we take for granted would not be possible to have today.”

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