photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence’s Juneteenth Celebration Parade makes its way through downtown in this file photo from June 2023.

Lawrence’s annual Juneteenth celebration will once again bring a day of festivities to South Park this Saturday.

This year’s event will take place at the park at 1141 Massachusetts St. from noon to 8 p.m., and it’s slated to feature tours of historic Underground Railroad sites, live music and more. Juneteenth, which takes place four days after the event on June 19, is a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in America.

The free event will begin at 8 a.m. with an Underground Railroad bus tour facilitated by the Watkins Museum of History. The tour will travel to three historic sites in Lawrence, where participants will “learn stories of heroism and tragedy from Lawrence’s early days as an important place in the Underground Railroad and the fight for a free Kansas.”

The bus tour will begin at the southeast corner of South Park and run from 8-10 a.m. The tour is free, but tour-goers must register in advance.

At 11 a.m., a parade will begin on Eighth Street and proceed to South Park, where attendees can find activities for kids and listen to Lawrence oral histories, live performances by artists like Durand Jones and Deepa Reality and spoken word poetry by Alex Kimball Williams and Barry Barnes.

Along with those events, an American Red Cross blood drive will also take place at the nearby Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., from noon to 4 p.m. As of Thursday morning, there are nine donation slots remaining for the drive; those interested in donating can sign up for a slot on the Red Cross website.

Also as part of the day of events, a food drive for Just Food will take place.

More information about the celebration is available at lawrencejuneteenth.org.