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Musicians and DJs kept an energetic crowd on its feet as people danced outside the African American Museum in Philadelphia for its Juneteenth Jubilee Block Party.

The annual block party, celebrating the museum’s 50th anniversary this year, featured a variety of dancers and musicians, as well as performances by DJ Jazzy Jeff, Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh, and Leah Jenea.

Attendees also enjoyed food trucks and shopped for handmade crafts from local vendors.

“It’s just a beautiful day,” Radiah Whaley Fowler of North Philadelphia said. “Everybody’s out. Everybody is connected. I’ve seen people of all nationalities, all colors, sizes, shapes. It is a beautiful thing.”

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date that enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

“It’s about the African American community coming together as one. But more importantly, it’s about the development and the progress that is needed for us to move forward,” block party attendant Brian Floyd said. “And Juneteeth means a family of people. Most importantly, it’s about our heritage that’s been transcended and passed down.”

The museum also marked its 50th anniversary by offering free visits all day. Visitors had the chance to get up close to roughly 80 original costumes from films such as “Black Panther” and “Sinners,” as part of the “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” exhibition.

Museum guests also toured the institution’s newest exhibit, “Who Is Ona Judge?” The video installation tells the story of the enslaved woman who escaped from President George Washington’s household.

“I am hoping that from our exhibitions … guests will walk away wanting to champion their own stories for freedom, as well as a sense of inspiration that they can do it too,” said Ashley Jordan, the museum’s president and CEO.

The museum is the first of its kind funded by a major city. The institution’s anniversary is a significant milestone, Jordan said, because in 1976, there were only a handful of African American museums or cultural sites dedicated to the study.

“Fifty years later, there’s over 300 sites dedicated to history and culture for African Americans, and we’re just happy to be considered a forerunner in that story,” she said. “With that legacy, we know that that is an invaluable reputation to have, but we’re looking forward to seeing more institutions like us come forward in other major cities that may go unlooked or overlooked, and we’re just happy to have this opportunity to be an institutional leader.”

To kick off the event, the Marian Anderson Scholar Artists and Choral Ensemble performed the Black national anthem, as well as gospel songs including “We Shall Overcome,” and the classic Marvin Gaye hit, “What’s Going On?”

Soprano Jillian Patricia Pirtle is the CEO of the Marian Anderson Museum and Historical Society in Philadelphia. The nonprofit and historic site honors Anderson’s musical and civil rights legacy.

“It is my hope that in this season of Jubilee, in this time of Juneteenth, as we are commemorating the 250th anniversary of that great experiment called America, that we realize that now more than ever, the only way that we can truly be free is if all of us are free,” Pirtle said. “We can’t do it without one another. And the togetherness, the oneness that is existing out here amongst the people, the Philadelphians, the crowds, the masses, it is a statement of what can be done in 250 years, and 250 years going forward, if we all stand together, we the people.”