The Kilgore Men & Women of Alliance held the second Juneteenth event of the summer at the city park on the 159th anniversary of the holiday. A large crowd gathered to celebrate under an overcast sky, a welcome break from the summer heat. Music filled the park as attendees visited food vendors and set up chairs on the grass.
Kilgore Mayor Pro Tem and councilmember Place 4 Victor Boyd opened the event by addressing the crowd on the history of the holiday and of his own journey to a seat on the city council.
Boyd asked the attendees to celebrate the achievements of Opal Lee, a woman from Marshall known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” who led a successful decades-long effort to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday.
“We owe a round of applause to Ms. Opal Lee, who is 97 years old,” Boyd said.
“That needs to be a lesson for everyone. If there is anything that you feel that you need to do, no matter what anyone tells you, you just push forward until you feel that you get the results that you’re looking for.”
Boyd shared a story of how the 2024 KMWA Juneteenth event came about, which included his own journey to a seat on the council.
In 2015, as they city was annexing the historic Fredonia community where Boyd lived, he decided to learn more about the annexation process and city government. He began attending city council meetings, which gave him the idea to run for city council.
“As I was thinking about it, people who looked like me were telling me, you’re not going to be able to go up there and sit with them and make decisions for the city. It messed with me for a minute. I thought, maybe they’re right. But it’s not about them, it’s about me.”
On a trip to Georgia in 2016, Boyd decided to walk across the historic Edmund Pettus bridge, where civil rights demonstrators from Selma were met with police nightsticks and tear gas on March 7, 1965. While there, he also climbed Stone Mountain.
“In 2016, when I applied to run for city council, I was elected Kilgore’s first Black elected official since Kilgore had been established in 1872,” he said as the crowd applauded. This past May 4, Boyd noted, he was elected to his fifth consecutive term on the council.
In 2021, when President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday, Boyd began working to hold a Juneteenth celebration in the city park, complete with fireworks. He, along with support and work from KMWA, helped make the event a reality, as they worked together with the city.
“This is a Kilgore Men & Women of Alliance event. Every year, Kilgore Men & Women of Alliance will be at this park, June 19, with some type of song, dance and, at the end, fireworks. This is for you. We’re going to celebrate freedom. We’re going to celebrate unity and all of those who believe slavery was wrong and that the slaves were freed and you agree with that, then we invite you to be here in this park with us every June 19 about this time because we’re going to have a great time,” Boyd said.
Boyd then read an official proclamation designating June 19 as Juneteenth in the city. Dancers from the Kilgore High School Ragin’ Red Stomp & Shake team performed and the 24/7 band played a mix of blues, soul and R&B.
While President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, southern states still under the control of the Confederacy did not comply with the order. Two and a half years later, as the Union defeated Confederate forces and moved into Texas, the last remaining enslaved people in the state received news of their freedom. The celebrations of that event became the basis for Juneteenth.
Check out was real simple, can't wait for the tote bag