The Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy is hosting its annual Juneteenth Fest with an urgent theme this year.
This Juneteenth, one of the first communities created by newly freed Black Texans, Freedmen’s Town, in the Fourth Ward of Houston, is celebrating by building on what they started.
On Thursday, June 19, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time, the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy is hosting its annual feature event, Juneteenth 160 Fest, as part of its year-long campaign “Building What We Started.”
Juneteenth 160 Fest will feature a range of events for the whole family, including yoga, live music, food, family events, and a special fireside chat with Marc Lamont Hill. The event, which will also include a special tribute to Congressman Sylvester Turner and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, starts with yoga, art workshops, and live music at the Houston Freedmen’s Town Visitor Center.
“Come and be in community with us,” Sharon Fletcher, executive director of the HFTC, said in a promo video announcing the event. “Dance. Smile. Learn. Eat. Just be here with us in Freedmen’s Town.”
The event promises lots of fun and fellowship but it also endeavors to tell the full story of Juneteenth.
“We often focus on the moment freedom was declared, but neglect to tell the story of what our ancestors built with that newfound freedom against all odds,” Tatianna Mott, the HFTC’s PR consultant, told theGrio.
According to the conservancy, in 1865, when General Granger showed up in Galveston to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, the people already knew about it. The order officially freeing those who had been enslaved was going unenforced in the region at the time. Once emancipation was fully recognized in the state, new communities built by hand by newly freed Black Texans began to spring up, including Freedmen’s Town. It wasn’t long before the community developed into a thriving cultural hub for Black Texans.
“In 1865, newly freed Black Texans built Freedmen’s Town from the ground up, laying bricks by hand, establishing schools, businesses, and churches, and creating the foundations of Black Houston. Their work was not the end of a struggle but the start of a new future,” HFTC officials explained in a release. “Today, ‘Building What We Started’ invites all generations to protect, invest in, and elevate historically Black neighborhoods and cultural narratives across the nation. It is a reminder that while emancipation sparked freedom, it is up to us to keep building it.”
The event comes at an especially poignant time, not only because the current administration threatens the very existence of holidays like Juneteenth and the ability to learn about them, but also because the community itself is still reeling from an incident earlier this month. In early June, contractors disturbed brick laid by the original settlers of Freedmen’s Town.
“These are the assets of our ancestors, and we don’t want to lose them, especially given the current climate and things we face in terms of erasure relative to African-American history,” Fletcher told the Houston Chronicle at the time.
The outlet reported that the bricks will be replaced by 2028, along with another set of bricks that were disturbed in 2016. For now, the conservancy and the conservancy have worked to put a barrier around the disturbed section.
As the community geared up for another Juneteenth, Fletcher, all things considered, noted the urgent significance of the holiday.
“This is a national story, not just a local one,” she said. “Houston Freedmen’s Town is where freedom turned into action. They built schools, churches, homes, businesses. They built futures. Their story is American history, and as we honor them, we want the nation to recognize the magnitude of what was started here and continues to this day.”
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://thegrio.com/2025/06/19/houstons-freedmens-town-honors-juneteenth-with-annual-celebration/
