Juneteenth celebrates history, family

“Those were the good times,’’ said the 40-year-old dance teacher. “Everybody left their doors open. Everybody knew each other. You had 100 mothers, because everybody was everybody’s mother.’’

Now residents mingle with people who have moved away, and return to the old neighborhood to reminisce and enjoy each other’s company at the Juneteenth and Roxbury Homecoming, she said. The event held yesterday at Franklin Park began in 1997 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States and to celebrate the neighborhood. Two years ago, Governor Deval Patrick signed a proclamation at the park proposing June 19 as a national holiday to honor the date in 1865 when the last people held as slaves in the country learned of their freedom.

“We’ve been coming for nine years; I look forward to it every year,’’ said Marsh, who still lives in the neighborhood and sat on the lawn with some friends at yesterday’s event.

Hundreds gathered under canopies and umbrellas scattered throughout the park. Patties and sausages sizzled on barbecue grills, and loud speakers boomed the funky sounds of the R&B band Earth, Wind, and Fire.

But the day is more than a picnic, said Teddy Scott. “It is a celebration of freedom.’’

Two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the last of the enslaved people in the United States learned they were free when Major General Gordon Granger landed in Texas June 19, 1865, and spread the news of the end of the Civil War.

Scott, 73, said he did not know this until he was in his 30s. Teachers did not teach black history in school, he said.

“I knew all about George Washington, but never knew about Juneteenth, never even knew there black soldiers who fought in the Union Army,’’ he said.

Scott gathered under a large, white canopy with other members of the Band of Angels, a Roxbury “street gang that decided to turn good’’ in 1958 and has since become a social and service organization. Many of them marched with Martin Luther King for civil rights during the 1960s in Selma, he said.

Not everyone under his tent got along in the past, however, he said. Some were enemies. In Roxbury, there were once street clubs, or gangs, on every block that fought each other with knives or bats, said Scott, who grew up in the neighborhood.

“We fought amongst ourselves,’’ he said. “It was not like it is today, when you have some people shooting up everybody.’’

Nevertheless, the fighting could get brutal. He and the original members of the Angels organization began talking with leaders of the other gangs to try to stop the fighting. They all made up their differences years ago, Scott said. Now some have come from as far as California and Florida to have some barbecue.

“We all grew up together,’’ Scott said. “Even though some us were all rivals, we are all friends now. It is all brotherly love.’’

Mariah Wornum, 18, stood eating with her family at a tent only a few feet across. She grew up in Roxbury and now lives in Dorchester. She has been coming to the event for the past eight years to celebrate her heritage, she said.

“You need to know where you come from,’’ she said.

As Patrick made his way into the event yesterday, he answered questions from a cluster of reporters on the proposed sales tax budget, saying he will veto the legislation unless he receives a strong ethics reform bill. But he went on to meet friends and laud volunteers at the Juneteenth celebration.

“I love this day,’’ he said. “It is a great family reunion.’’