The Farrell Area High School band danceline performs Saturday in the Farrell Juneteenth celebration.
FARRELL – Farrell Mayor Kimberly Doss said Juneteenth is about everybody coming together.
“There’s no skin color difference; everybody’s the same, so that’s a great day,” Doss said.
Monica Miller Scott, Farrell Recreation Commission president, organized the two-day celebration Friday and Saturday in Farrell for the third year, although the city has held its celebration for several years, even before Juneteenth was designated in 2021 as a federal holiday.
“It’s our celebration of independence,” Scott said.
Scott went on the Underground Railroad tour — led by VisitMercerCountyPA, the county’s tourism promotion agency — Friday.
“People don’t know how many safehouses are in the Shenango Valley, in Mercer County,” Scott said. “So this is celebrated throughout, not just the city of Farrell. I’m happy to host it.”
Scott said Friday had a great turnout of people for the Juneteenth celebration’s kickoff.
“I saw people I haven’t seen in years,” Scott said. “People have come home just for the Juneteenth celebration.”
People also came for the food. Smith’s Youngstown Soul Food arrived with rib and chicken dinners and more. Stacey’s Caribbean Food was at the celebration, BBQ was on hand, and people enjoyed elephant ears and Jamaican cuisine.
Juneteenth marks the arrival on June 19, 1865, in Texas, where Union troops under Gen. Gordon Granger, delivered news of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas, to the last remaining enslaved people in the defeated Confederacy. Juneteenth was proclaimed a national holiday in 2021.
Monica Williams, president of the local NAACP unit, walked in the parade Saturday morning.
“The biggest thing for me is us coming together and sharing and encouraging each other that what we have is worth giving and the world doesn’t go round until we take our place in it,” Williams said. “It takes everybody to make the world go round.”
Char Freeman and Shannon Graham, lifelong Farrell residents, were sitting with their children waiting for the parade to come by them across from the Municipal Building on Roemer Boulevard.
“Juneteenth is a reminder and a start of freedom for all those of African descent so it means progress, it means the work we still have to do, it means still loving each other and celebrating each other,” Freeman said. “Just a bunch of good things. Unity and all of us coming together.”
Graham said Juneteenth is also a celebration of progress.
“We used to not be able to do celebrations for things like this so it’s a celebration of progress; where we have come. How far we have come,” Graham said. “Support for community and being equal with everyone else.”
Pastor Tiffany Holden, who hosted a prayer chain for unity, peace and protection Saturday afternoon, said Juneteenth speaks of our history.
“It means a lot to me because it reminds me of the struggle that our ancestors had and how we have to continue to fight in this day and age right now,” Holden said. “So it’s empowering for me.”
