"I feel like music is one of the things that is most unifying across all groups of people."
- Simone Embry, Austin All-Star Band member & student at Navarro Early College High School.

The Austin ISD All-Star Band is ready for the 2021 Juneteenth Parade, their first performance in two years since the 2020 parade was canceled due to the pandemic. Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in June 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

Students reflect on what it means to be able to perform in the Juneteenth Parade again, after a year filled with activism and action in the social justice movement.

The Austin All Star Band is made up of band and dance students from across AISD, lead by Rory Guice, band director at Northeast Early College High School.

Austin ISD invites the community to join faculty, staff, students and their families and the District All-Star Band to march in the annual Historical Juneteenth Parade this Saturday, June 19 at 9 a.m.

For more information about the parade, please visit:
https://www.austinisd.org/calendar/events/2021/06/19/austin-isd-junetee…