HOUSTON – Saturday's 42nd Annual Juneteenth Parade was short, but it's messages were deep.
The parade, billed as the oldest of its kind in the nation, celebrates June 19, 1865, when Texas received word—two years late—that slavery was abolished in America.
Many of the spectators' hearts and minds were on the tragic church massacre in South Carolina and the man who stands accused of killing nine of its members.
"This young man took upon himself to go in there and listen to them for a while and then killed them and shot them while he was putting out racial slurs," said parade watcher Demmis Johnson. "I don't feel no forgiveness for him, because I want him to be tortured every day of his life."
A group from Pride Houston also walked in the parade.
"Our community is more than just LGBT," said Pride Houston CEO Frankie Quijano. "It is the entire Houston community and, in that, part of the LGBT community are people who celebrate Juneteenth."
There was also a group protesting police brutality.
"At this time, I think it's imperative that all people rise up in the name of love," said the group's leader Eric Douglas. "You don't solve a violent war with violence. You solve it with love. Love cures all."
The parade started at Texas Southern University and made its way through the Third Ward, south of downtown, and ended at Project Row Houses near Live Oak with a music festival.
