SAN ANTONIO – Local organizers planned a Juneteenth march and rally in San Antonio to commemorate when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free in 1865.
The rally started at 11 a.m. Friday at Pittman Sullivan Park. Demonstrators marched east down Martin Luther King Drive to the Freedom Bridge near MLK Park.
Organizers say they marched to make Juneteenth a federal holiday while remembering emancipation.
Recent protests over racial injustice and police brutality have driven awareness of Juneteenth’s significance to white Americans and other races.
According to the Associated Press, Hawaii, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states without official recognition of the holiday. It is recognized in 47 states but is not yet a federal holiday.
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