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Johnson House Historic Site hosted its 20th annual Juneteenth Festival in Germantown, Philadelphia, on Saturday.

The house was a waystation on the Underground Railroad and is now a museum and a National Historic Landmark.

Cornelia Swinson, executive director of the nonprofit, said the site’s history made it well-suited to host Juneteenth celebrations — long before the city of Philadelphia and the federal government recognized the holiday commemorating the day when the last group of enslaved people in the United States learned about the Emancipation Proclamation.

“We do [the festival] because we’re a station on the Underground Railroad,” she said, noting that the Johnson House’s Juneteenth Festival is the oldest of its kind in Philadelphia. “There’s an authenticity that is connected to what we do.”

On Saturday, thousands of visitors enjoyed food and perused more than 80 vendors set up on the 6300 block of Germantown Avenue, which was closed off to traffic. A main stage at Germantown Avenue and Johnson Street hosted a series of performers throughout the afternoon.

The festival helps bring foot traffic to local small businesses along the avenue, many of which participate in planning the event, Swinson said.

One of those local businesses celebrated its grand opening on Saturday. Taja Morris, founder and CEO of Sister With An Agenda, cut the ribbon at 6353 Germantown Ave. to open the SWA Collective Hub, a low-rent space for the women business owners she works with through her organization.

“We work on capacity, emotional intelligence, and then from there we also work with business owners to amplify their business, bring connection, work on their business pitch, and just help to expand their network and use a marketing networking strategy,” she said.

Morris said it was especially significant to open the hub during the Juneteenth Festival.

“As we think about Juneteenth, it’s a celebration of Black Americans,” she said. “This was space occupied by Deborah Gary, who also was big in the community, big on helping small business owners, and she bought the first Black bookstore here in Philadelphia, called the Color Book Gallery, years ago.”

To continue that “generational legacy” is something she is excited about, Morris said.

‘We’ll celebrate our own history’

Swinson said Thursday’s court ruling upholding President Donald Trump’s power to replace the slavery exhibit at the President’s House Site on Independence Mall is “all the more reason” to celebrate Juneteenth and speak about the history of enslavement and those who fought against it.

“It’s our right. That history is there, whether you agree with it or not,” she said. “It’s documented, it’s here, and we don’t want to be in a situation where people think that all they have to say is, ‘I’m going to take it down.’ We still talk to each other, we still convene together in our community. We live side by side. So, I mean, that’s [Trump’s] opinion. He’s the president of the United States. He can do that, but in spaces like this, we’re going to continue to talk about it.”

Robin Hill, 65, a Germantown resident, said Juneteenth celebrations are an important way of teaching vital history to younger generations.

“I’m glad to see a lot of young people out here, because we were kind of taught our history by our parents and grandparents, even though we didn’t really learn it in school, but these children really aren’t learning anything about their culture,” Hill said. “And now with the current administration, a lot of things are being stripped away from our culture, so things like this are extremely important.”

Jacqueline Wimbush, 68, a resident of West Oak Lane who grew up down the street from Hill, agreed. She said Trump’s effort to remove the exhibit at the President’s House is a “hateful act.”

“When those things happen, we have to make sure that our children know from the community, from their support groups, their churches, their community centers, their parents, what the history is and why it’s so important,” she said.

Wimbush expressed hope that whoever is president after Trump will reverse that decision.

“If not, we’ll celebrate our own history and continue passing our history on to our children and whoever else is interested,” she said.

Juneteenth is about celebrating Black culture and expressing a love of country, said Kiyah Clark, a Germantown resident.

“This is … one of those opportunities for us to also celebrate our culture, and then, of course, you get to celebrate freedom,” she said. “I think that some people lost their love of their country, feeling like it’s being overshadowed by the oppressive stories of our past. This is a chance for us to still show that we love our country just as much as anybody else [does]. It’s just that we also love that freedom aspect. We wanted to have the liberty and the pursuit of happiness that everybody else had.”