BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. -- The Benton Harbor Juneteenth Cultural Alliance Committee hosted its annual Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday at Dwight P. Mitchell City Center Park in downtown Benton Harbor, Michigan.

The event ran from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and drew community members from across southwest Michigan for a day of cultural programming, live performance, vendors, and community gathering.

A representative from the Cultural Alliance Committee spoke to the organization's mission and the personal significance of Juneteenth — both as a historical milestone and as an ongoing reflection of how far the country has come since June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were formally notified of their freedom. A representative from a local historic museum echoed that sentiment, speaking to what Juneteenth means within the specific context of southwest Michigan and where the community and the country still have room to grow.

The celebration took place during the year of the nation's 250th anniversary, lending the event additional weight as a moment to both honor progress and honestly reckon with what equality in America still requires. Organizers and community members framed the day as a celebration of resilience, a preservation of history, and a call toward continued work.

Diane Young, the Chair of the Benton Harbor Juneteenth Cultural Alliance Committee explains what Juneteenth means to her, "We are resilient, regardless of what we go through and what we have gone through, we can still come together and celebrate and support and show love to one another as a community. Juneteenth to me means my freedom, my history, and the community coming together to celebrate.

Sharon Brown, a representative of the African American History and Literature Gallery gives her own take, "Juneteenth for me is almost being brave and taking courage. I'm still trying to figure out, how do you free someone that was born free?"

When I see all of the beauty, I see all of the participation and including the diversity we get involved with community events that we may not know all of what's going on there, but we take courage enough, we come out the better for it.

Diane Young, Chair of the Benton Harbor Juneteenth Cultural Alliance Committee

When we could come together in a unified way, regardless of our race, regardless of our economic status, but to come together and celebrate together,