JUNETEENTH PARADE IN FULTON, KY. JUNE 17

On Sat., June 17, area residents gathered along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive in Fulton, for a first-time parade to commemorate Juneteenth. Juneteenth dates back to June 19, 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger, a U.S. Army Officer and Union General during the Civil War issued an order in Galveston, Texas, announcing that all slaves were free under the Emancipation Proclamation, which came two and one-half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863. However many enslavers continued to hold enslaved people captive after the announcement. President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. Locally, Keith Burton and other volunteers coordinated the parade this year, which featured Twin Cities fire trucks, motorcycles and walkers. The parade route continued along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, to East State Line. (Photos by Benita Fuzzell)