In Detroit, where 80% are black, preparatory art and design high school students escaped the rain and repainted the long message “Power to the People” created by Messi in downtown Woodward Avenue last year.

Messi said that the “o” in “Power??” is a red fist to commemorate George Floyd and other police victims of excessive use of force.

Olivia Jones, 15, leaned on a long paint roller and said: “We made the original.” “The important thing is that we come back and share the same energy.”

The June Festival commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to the enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas-two months after the Confederate surrendered in the Civil War, Approximately 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation liberated slaves in the southern states.

Biden signed a bill on Thursday Established National Independence Day in June. Since June 19th this year is a Saturday, the US government celebrated this holiday on Friday.

At least nine states have legally designated it as an official paid state holiday, but in May 2020, after a black man Freud was killed by a policeman in Minneapolis, all but one state In addition, all other states have taken action.

Watch | June Festival becomes a federal holiday:

US President Joe Biden signed a bill to make June 19 a national holiday. June Festival was the day when legal slavery of African Americans was abolished in 1865. But there are disagreements on whether this is enough to cure ethnic conflict. 2:00

In Galveston, the birthplace of the festival, the celebrations included the presentation of a 5,000 square foot mural entitled “Absolute Equality.”

Opal Lee, 94, stood by Biden when he signed the bill. He returned to Fort Worth, Texas and led a 2.5-mile walk, symbolizing that Texas slaves were told that they had been The time it took to release.

Officials in Bristol, Rhode Island published a sign describing the role of the seaport in the slave trade. The marker was placed in the Linden Square Museum, a mansion built by General George De Wolf, who was a slave trader. The Rhode Island Slave History Medal Organization has raised public awareness of the role of the state in slavery.

In a park in Kansas City, Missouri, food, live music, games, and poetry readings were on the agenda. The event was organized by Black Rainbow, a relatively new advocacy group for oppressed people.

Co-founder Ryan Sorrell said: “Given the daily trauma, atrocities and grief suffered by the black community over the past year, we must create moments of joy, love and celebration of our resilience for our survival.”

Hundreds of people gathered in Times Square in New York to hold a free concert organized by the Broadway Alliance, the Broadway entertainment trade organization.

The June Festival parade was held in Evanston, Illinois. The Chicago suburbs are using tax revenue from marijuana sales to provide housing subsidies to black residents in response to past discrimination and the lingering effects of slavery.

Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights activist, presented a tough message in his National Action Network speech, saying that Senate Republicans who voted unanimously to designate June as a federal holiday should also support changing the voting law and make it easier to crack down. The Democratic Party’s bill on gangster police

“Celebrating June Festival is not a party…The way to deal with June Festival now is to deal with the 2021 game,” Sharpton said.