Hoover-AHEAD group to hold 2022 Juneteenth celebration Saturday

The Hoover-AHEAD (Ambassadors for Hoover Equity and Diversity) group is holding its second annual Juneteenth celebration this Saturday, June 18, at Veterans Park off Valleydale Road.

The celebration will be from 1 to 5 p.m. and is supposed to include West African drumming and dancing, performances by Hoover students, a Juneteenth choir performance and appearances by local artists. Food trucks also are scheduled.

Juneteenth, officially celebrated on June 19, is a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, slaves were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.

The Hoover-AHEAD group formed in 2019 with goals of celebrating diversity and promoting racial equity and inclusion.

“Where Juneteenth is celebrated, it has become a unifier because it recognizes that slaves didn't miraculously become free, but that it took the united effort of Americans of all backgrounds,” the Hoover-AHEAD group said in a press release. “Our hope is that our Juneteenth Celebration continues to usher in a new era of cultural events for Hoover that will invoke the spirit of unity with the entire Hoover community.”