Pittsburgh sports teams come together to celebrate Juneteenth
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Juneteenth festivities are popping up all over Pittsburgh this weekend and the town's sports teams are getting in on all the action.
The Penguins are happy to join the Pittsburgh community at this year's Grand Jubilee Juneteenth Parade 💛♥️💚🖤 pic.twitter.com/KN2VouCdsq
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 18, 2022
A parade started in Freedom Corner and ended at Point State Park for a voting rights forum and then a celebration.
On Saturday, the @steelers staff handed out Terrible Towels to fans at the 2022 #Juneteenth Grand Jubilee Parade in Downtown Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/1uaAKJY5ct
— Steelers Community Relations (@SteelersCR) June 18, 2022
The celebration is a re-enactment of the 1870 Grand Jubilee of Freemen Parade in Pittsburgh and the 1914 Women's Sufferage Parade.
We participated in the Grand Jubilee #Juneteenth Parade in Pittsburgh this morning! pic.twitter.com/wMytwHZfgF
— Pirates Community (@BucsCommunity) June 18, 2022
The Juneteenth holiday celebrates the day the slaves in Texas learned they were freed - two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law last year. Juneteenth is the newest federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was adopted in 1983.