Dressed in a bright yellow and blue shirt and with an “I am Juneteenth” sign in hand, Tia Sims was excited to celebrate the new national holiday on Saturday by participating in the parade in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, which returned after events were canceled in 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of America’s slaves. On June 19, 1865, slaves in Texas were notified that they were free under the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued over two years before. Juneteenth celebrations have occurred in Five Points since the 1950s. Two days before this year’s Juneteenth, President Joe Biden signed a bill making it a federal holiday.

Sims’ shirt matched the outfits of the young members of the Queens & Kings of Dynasty dance team. Sims has served as their assistant coach for over seven years.

“We’re so excited that … Juneteenth is now a holiday,” Sims said, adding that it has been over 400 years since the first slaves were brought to what became the United States. “This day means more than any other day has ever meant to us.”

Sims has celebrated Juneteenth for over 40 years, since she was a child. Its importance is equivalent to the birth of her children, she  said.

As a 51-year-old woman who grew up in Five Points, Sims has seen the struggles of the community firsthand, especially between residents and the police. She remembers when she was about 16 years old and she recounted how a police officer held a gun to her head.

It happened in Curtis Park, she said. She was walking to John F. Kennedy High School with her friends when officers abruptly pulled them over and drew guns, saying they fit the profile of criminals.

After the police ran background checks and verified that Sims and her friends were innocent, they left, she said, but Sims was left with the impact.

“It was a .357 revolver [held] at my head; you understand me? I’m still traumatized from that, but I have forgiven them. But it’s still happening,” Sims explained, referring to George Floyd, who died in custody of Minneapolis police last year.

Given the historical struggles that have occurred in Five Points, it’s important to Sims that the Juneteenth celebration occurs in her neighborhood on a date that represents freedom to her.

After preparing alongside other organizations in the parking lot of Manual High School, the Queens & Kings of Dynasty dance team would go on to dance for about an hour in the Juneteenth parade, along with over 50 other organizations.

Preparing for the parade has been Chiniqua Jackson’s priority for months. As the parade director — in addition to being the youth zone coordinator — Jackson hopes that people gain a sense of love, community and unity from the event.

A Five Points native herself, she has been part of the parade since she was a child, when she was a member of the Starlites drill team. Today, she helps lead her own dance groups, the Platinum Divaz and the Platinum Gents, as they, too, perform in the parade.

“I think it’s always important to celebrate Juneteenth so we don’t forget what our ancestors went through, but know where we’ve come from — how much we’ve grown since then,” Jackson said, adding that she hopes children get involved in the conversation and celebration as well. “So many of our kids are so lost, and all they know is social media. So, it would be great for them to start teaching the kids to know about Juneteenth, and we make this bigger and better.”

Jackson and Sims have been taught about Juneteenth by family members since a young age, but that hasn’t been the case for all people.

Zain Dada, who moved to the neighborhood just before the pandemic began, said he didn’t hear about it until last year after the George Floyd murder.

“Because I’m not Black; I’m brown, admittedly, I — and I come from the Midwest, I come from a predominantly rural town — so it was just not something that I learned about in school. And so coming here to Denver, suddenly I started to hear about it,” explained Dada, who was part of the crowd watching the parade pass by.

Dada was excited to celebrate Juneteenth as a way to connect with his community and meet new people. For him, the holiday represents a time for unity and an opportunity for learning that didn’t happen in the classroom.

“I didn’t know enough about the history,” Dada said. “And now that we’re celebrating it, and talking about it, and coming out and celebrating with parades and protests, I’m learning.”

A sense of unity and support was one of the main reasons that Kyana Crawford and Letticia Blundell, two 21-year-olds who live in Aurora, decided to come watch the parade as well. Crawford had learned about Juneteenth a year ago from her father. For her, a Black woman, the holiday means a lot.

“It’s important because it’s like our Fourth of July, cause it’s our time when we were finally free and had — I wouldn’t say the same rights — but it’s a step forward. It’s a step in the right direction,” Crawford said.

For Crawford’s friend Blundell, it’s a chance for her to learn from and support the Black community.

“I think it’s important because I feel like I — personally, I get to understand and feel what everybody else feels. It gives them a chance to celebrate themselves,” Blundell said.

Hundreds stood along 26th Street as the parade passed through, cheering and chanting and dancing throughout the hourlong celebration. In attendance were various dance teams, politicians, and representatives of corporations like US Bank and Target, and the NAACP and other local organizations.

The parade ended at Five Points Plaza, where the celebration continued with the street festival featuring over 200 booths with food, shops and a main stage for live musical performances from artists such as DJ Cyn and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Volunteer staff members such as Edward Roche, who came from Utah to volunteer on behalf of Green Rock Hemp Holdings, handed out water bottles to attendees, while longtime members of the community like James Chapman, who also calls himself the “Button Man,” sold his “History of Five Points” T-shirt design that he drew in 1994 and sells at his shop on East 33rd Avenue to fund a Denver mentorship program.

Crowds of people, mostly without masks, walked up and down the streets, laughing, eating and celebrating. The street festival, beginning at noon, concluded at 8 p.m on Saturday. The festival will also take place on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Juneteenth is a celebration for all to participate in, Jackson said.

“It’s just an exciting thing for me. It’s just like a big firework,” Jackson explained, saying the colors of a firework extend in a similar way that Juneteenth does. “It’s just a little bit of everything for everyone, from the youngest babies to our older generation.”