BUFFALO, N.Y. — This months marks 47 years that Buffalo has been putting on its Juneteenth Festival, a time for both celebration and reflection.
"I know it seems like all we do is celebrate but that's not it. We pay tribute to our ancestors," said Marcus Brown, a board member with the Buffalo Juneteenth festival.
It will be the first time in two years that the festival is back in-person.
"You can feel the energy, just with the whole COVID situation. You can feel people urging to come together as a community," said Buffalo Juneteenth board member Dayatra Hassan.
Together as a community, many still need to heal.
"What we're going to do is dedicate the whole festival to the tragedy that happened over there at Tops," Brown said.
It's why the focus of the festival will be on the ten, incredible people from this community who are no longer with us but whose memory mean everything.
"I really don't know what the feeling is going to be but if it's like I think it is, I don't think people will ever forget what happened on Jefferson Street. But it doesn't mean you can't have fun, the people who passed away would want the ones who are still here to continue. I'm sure of that. And that's what we're trying to do, continue," Brown said.
The festival will continue with 150 vendors, and security, not meant to make festival goers scared but instead to provide some comfort.
"We have involved all the law enforcement people that we can," Brown said.
"We always have security in place. That's very important especially this year," Hassan said.
However, there's always been a fear that our Black neighbors and their ancestors know all to well because of those filled with hate.
"I think that's what they want to do. They want to bring fear in us so we can't congregate, so we can't love each other, so we can't do the things we normally do. And that's not going to happen," Brown said.
Hate can never win. This Juneteenth, it won't.
"You've got to keep on going," Brown said.
The Juneteenth building at 1517 Genesee Street is falling apart. For those who want to donate and help make repairs, click here.