Sun Shines on Martin Luther King Jr. Parade & Juneteenth Celebration

Forty-five minutes before the 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Parade & Juneteenth Celebration was set to step off, rain was coming down in sheets. But parade participants kept the faith and by 10 a.m. the sun was peeking back through the clouds, then full-on shining. I settled in beneath a shade tree at Austin-East High School to enjoy the sprawling parade as it made its way from Chilhowee Park up Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to Dr. Walter Hardy Park, where a free, family-friendly Juneteenth Celebration partied on into the afternoon.

Local news channels live streamed the parade — you can rewatch it on the YouTube channels of  WBIR Channel 10, WATE Channel 6 and WVLT Channel 8. A highlight was the Austin-East Marching Roadrunners, including the marching band, majorettes, cheerleaders and Dancing Dolls. The parade also featured the Elite Striders Drill Team, from Lake County, Illinois, who earned back-to-back world titles in 2023 and 2024.

Organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission of Knoxville, the parade was joyful but also reflective. East Tennessee’s history of emancipation is complicated. I think Knox News in particular this year did an excellent job of sharing a fuller story of Juneteenth with several pieces well worth reading. Tyler Whetstone’s “Enslaved Tennesseans weren’t freed on the Eighth of August. So why do we celebrate it?” is a good place to start. Angela Dennis also wrote an impactful story for Compass, “Delayed Freedom,” that begins with a question: What does it mean to celebrate freedom in a state restricting how that freedom’s history is taught?

Here are some photos I took. Here’s hoping you had a great Juneteenth, and that it also served as a reminder that the work continues.