COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Lincoln Recreation Center honored Juneteenth with its annual Freedom Walk Friday morning.
Children and adults gathered at the center and walked 2.2 miles to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.
College Station police escorted the group alongside George Bush Drive, stopping traffic for the group to cross streets.
Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, celebrates when slaves in Galveston learned they were free in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into affect.
Cheletia Johnson, the center supervisor, says the walk represented "freedom," "celebration" and "jubilation." The event was also a way to remember history, according to Johnson.
"I feel amazing that I was able to accomplish this, and then just to reflect on and remember those that have sacrificed, so I might be able to have that freedom," Johnson said.
Once they reached the library, the group went inside for storytelling, singing and dancing with award-winning storyteller Toni Simmons as part of the library's Freedom's Legacy Storytelling event.