Local Oxford resident organizes first Juneteenth celebration

Four years after Juneteenth became a nationally recognized holiday, a new celebration was held in Oxford last weekend June 19-21. 

The celebration was organized by Brian Revere, a local Oxford resident. The weekend included musical performances on June 19, a recognition dinner on June 20 and a family cookout on June 21. 

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed all slaves held by the Confederacy, but Confederate slave owners refused to grant their freedom even after the Civil War ended in April of 1865. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Texas, the western-most Confederate state, and announced that more than 250,000 slaves in the state were freed. 

Early Juneteenth celebrations began as early as 1866, with newly-freed African Americans gathering at churches and taking pilgrimages to Galveston, Texas, where the Union made its announcement in 1865. 

Juneteenth celebrations spread throughout the South in the early 20th century, with the events often including food festivals. However, despite requests for the government to officially recognize the holiday, it wasn’t until 2021 when President Joe Biden designated it as a national holiday.

Revere, who has lived in Oxford for two years and grew up in Middletown, took it upon himself to organize the city-wide event in Oxford this year.

“It’s not being celebrated, and it’s been in place for four years,” Revere said. “It took this year [and] me as an individual to organize and put it together, even when I was told I couldn’t … But I told them, ‘It’s going to happen regardless.’”

While organizing the celebration, Revere created O.N.E.UNITED, a nonprofit organization and social club aimed at bringing people together. He said for a college town like Oxford, it’s important to recognize the diversity of the student body and host events in town that people of different races and backgrounds can gravitate towards. 

“It’s not something that they see themselves wanting to go to because it doesn’t fit their culture,” Revere said. “Oxford [is] a college town. You got college kids coming in from all over the country, all over the world. The town is only geared for a certain few selected groups of people, missing out on a whole different population that can really come and call this home.”

The motto of O.N.E.UNITED is “Educate, Celebrate and Appreciate.” Revere used this as a guideline when deciding what to do on each day. 

The first night included a musical performance from Vu Skeen and Next Fazze at the Uptown Park. At the end of the performance, Revere thanked the artists and audience for showing up before leading a crowd to the “Changemakers of Ohio” mural on the Oxford Municipal Building. 

The mural honors three civil rights activists — James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman — who participated in the Freedom Summer Project in 1964 and trained at the Western College for Women.

Karen Byrd-Gibson, who attended Thursday’s event, said the evening was not only a celebration for Black people who currently live in Oxford, but also for their ancestors who have stayed in town. 

“It lets me know that we have come a mighty long way,” Byrd-Gibson said. “I look at my grandparents and my mother and so forth: We’ve lived here all our life, and they would be proud to know that this day has finally gotten here.”

Friday’s event involved a recognition dinner at LCNB Bank. Byrd-Gibson attended the dinner and gave a speech to honor Norma Hurston, the oldest-living Black person in Oxford. 

The Saturday event took place again at Uptown Park and included a family-day cookout. People gathered at the park to spend time in the sun, eat hot dogs and listen to music. 

Throughout the weekend, O.N.E.UNITED also had a booth where people could enter a raffle for an art piece from Joe Prescher, a local artist who created the Oxford Hive Mural in the alleyway of Mac & Joe’s. People could also purchase t-shirts from O.N.E.UNITED, with the proceeds going towards future community events. 

Preparations for the 2026 Juneteenth celebration have already begun. Revere hopes to hold more community events through O.N.E.UNITED throughout the year. For Juneteenth next year, he hopes to get funding from the city and to advertise, but for him, the event isn’t about the numbers or how many people show up: It’s about uniting people to celebrate and have a good time in a safe environment. 

“I don’t care about none of that,” Revere said. “I had more black people show up in the three-day time span than any other event that [has been] held here in Oxford. That’s what it was about. And it wasn’t just black people there, it was everybody enjoying everything.”