In 1999, when Oscar Vicks began organizing San Antonio’s annual Juneteenth parade, he was one of five people who marched down W.W. White Road with one float to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
“And we were going down the street like we had the biggest parade in town,” Vicks recalled.
This year’s parade starts at Sam Houston High School at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 20. The parade follows a 3.2-mile route down the Eastside roadway to Comanche Park.
Vicks leads the effort with co-chair Vera Williams-Young, a local businesswoman.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when a Union Army general ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War.
The first Juneteenth celebrations began in 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 1979.
In San Antonio, informal events began in the late 1800s and official parades marking the event began around 1980.
Born in Arkansas, Vicks was living in Memphis in April 1968 when the civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He still recalls where he was and what he was doing when he learned that King had died and the city erupted.
His parents locked him in the house to keep him from joining the riots.
Vicks was drafted during the Vietnam War. After sustaining an injury, the U.S. Army shipped Vicks to San Antonio in 1970 for medical care.
“Now I get back home, we’ve got a colored restaurant, a colored water fountain, a colored restroom,” said Vicks, incredulous that he fought for his somebody else’s rights, but he had none.
“I’ve been protesting ever since.”
A church pastor, Rev. Sherman Clifton Byrd, asked the Arkansas native to help organize the Juneteenth parade.
The parade has grown in numbers since. “Last year we … had over 1,000 people in the parade. So we’re looking for it to be bigger and better this year.”
A growing event
The nonprofit Juneteenth Freedom Coalition raises funds for the annual event through sponsorships and a banquet, and sells T-shirts and a souvenir book. Money also comes from what Vicks called “gut givers,” people who donate out of kindness.
One of the largest donors is the Spurs organization, he said. So the annual parade often features a Spurs-themed float alongside a Juneteenth float decorated red, yellow and green, in addition to the Sam Houston band and others.
This year, donations for the parade came in lieu of flowers for a funeral.
Vicks’ wife Doris died May 28 at age 79. The couple had been married 54 years.
“I’d wake up every morning, [and say] ‘Miss Vicks, Miss Vicks, how you feel this morning?’ She always said, ‘I’m OK, honey,’ but this time she ain’t say nothing,” Vicks said.
Just four weeks prior they had preselected their caskets and made other arrangements for a future burial at Fort Sam National Cemetery. Doris chose a blue dress for the grave and hung it on the closet door, he said.
At the June 9 funeral, the Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers served as pallbearers. Vicks is a lifetime member of the organization that educates the public about the history and legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers and Black Indian Scouts.
But now for the first time, he won’t have Doris to help with the parade. He has asked his sister Sherry Thompson to step in.
The parade must go on after all.
“And I just got one goal I want to prove — I want to prove that we can get together and fight for liberty, equality, and justice for all,” he said.
“That’s our theme. You don’t see that every year. Freedom, equality and justice for all, not just Black folk, you know, for everybody.”
