Celebrate Juneteenth in Houston

Residents of Harris County can celebrate Juneteenth at a variety of events throughout the city of Houston. The weather is expected to hit triple digits, so make sure to check the forecast before heading out. Tips for staying safe in the heat can be found at readyharris.org.

2023 Juneteenth Events in Houston

Mayor Turner’s Annual Acres Homes Juneteenth Parade

Saturday, June 17 | 10 am to 12 pm

Parade begins at Acres Homes Multi-Service Center at 6719 W. Montgomery, travels north on W. Montgomery, west on Dolly Wright, and ends on 1620 Dolly Wright at Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

Emancipation Park Juneteenth Celebration

Saturday, June 17 | 3:00 pm to 10 pm

Celebration starts with a Freedom Walk at 7 am. The concert and other festivities start at 3 pm, with doors opening at 2 pm. Admission is free, and no tickets are required.

Wells Fargo Presents Juneteenth at Miller – A Celebration of Freedom

Friday, June 16 @ 8:15 pm (Part 1)

Saturday, June 17 @ 8:15 pm (Part 2)

A tribute concert held over two nights. Performances will also be broadcast over livestream, available through YouTube and Facebook. Visit the Miller Outdoor Theatre’s website to obtain free tickets. No tickets required for those wishing to sit on the hill.

Juneteenth Reading List

The following titles are available through the Harris County Public Library. Visit the Law Library to obtain a library card. Or request a digital access card online. Digital cards are only available only to residents of Harris County, Texas.

How the Word Is Passed: A reckoning with the history of slavery across America by Clint Smith

“'How the Word is Passed' is Clint Smith's revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation. Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nations collective history, and ourselves.”

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

“The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth's integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native. Interweaving American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us.”

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind. The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked 'a new birth of freedom' in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America?”