Juneteenth Festival in Belmont, North Carolina

These photos are from the annual Juneteenth Festival in Belmont, North Carolina.  Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.  These photos were made by Steven D. Huff of SteveHuffMedia.com