DENVER (KDVR) — On June 17, 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, making it a national holiday.

With the signing, people across the United States would officially celebrate the day recognizing freedom for the black community, but Juneteenth celebrations have been unofficially held for generations, and one of the biggest started in Denver in the Five Points neighborhood.

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on Jan. 1, 1863, but it would take just over two years for the Union Army to March to Texas and declare the emancipation of 250,000 enslaved people on June 19, 1865.

The day became known as the birth of Black Independence Day, with the first-ever Juneteenth celebration being held in Texas on the same day in 1866, according to the United States Capitol Society.

Black communities held parades, barbecues, and church events in honor of the day.

Following emancipation, African Americans would soon discover a new tribulation in the form of Jim Crow policies that created racial inequality in the southern states, according to History. The policies saw African Americans leave the southern states.

Between 1916 and 1970, over six million African Americans left the southern states in what became known as the Great Migration. The Great Migration included the black community in Texas, whose Juneteenth celebrations followed them to their new homes.

Juneteenth celebrations soon scattered to nearby southern states, before popping up in cities in the west as well, chief among them — Denver.

Black Texans who relocated to Denver established their lives in the Five Points and Whittier neighborhoods. By the 1920s, more than 90% of the black population in Denver resided in those neighborhoods, according to the Denver Library.

In the early 1950s, Otha P. Rice, the owner of Rice's Tap Room on Welton Street and a Texas native, organized the first community Juneteenth event in Denver. The festival continued for over a decade before its next evolution after "Big Al" Richardson took over the planning in 1966 through the Five Points Business Association.

Richardson turned the celebration into a multi-day celebration with music, vendors and parades.

The festival continued to grow and became one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations across the country by the 1980s.

In 2025, Five Points is still the hosting grounds of the Juneteenth celebration in Denver. The celebration features music festivals, vendors, parades, among many other events. However, the traditionally two-day celebration was reduced to one day after corporate sponsors withdrew funding.