"Visiting Comanche Crossing on Juneteenth felt like freedom," the author's father said. He described the park near Lake Mexia, Texas, as a place once filled with Black families cooking, dancing, and playing music. It was a big festival with fireworks and parties.
It had been over 60 years since his last visit in 1965. He fondly recalled the food: barbecue ribs, chicken, brisket, fried chicken, potato salad, beans, watermelon, Big Red Soda, banana pudding, peach cobbler, pecan pie, and homemade ice cream.
Long before Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021, this park was where generations of Black Texans gathered every June 19th.
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Start Your News DetoxJune 19, 1865, was the day Union troops told enslaved Africans in Texas they were free. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Comanche Crossing is less than three miles from where these enslaved people first learned of their freedom. They celebrated with a feast from their harvest.
The story of Black Texans keeping Juneteenth traditions alive through food for over a century often goes unnoticed. The author, a Black Texan and scholar of Black food culture, now sees these celebrations differently. The food spreads did more than just feed people. They showed how food was a tool of resistance and a symbol of freedom during and after slavery.
The Freedom Feast
The author asked his father about preparing food for Juneteenth. In 1965, his family lived in Fort Worth but traveled to Waco the night before Juneteenth. They cooked all night, smoking meat over a pit and assembling other dishes with fresh ingredients and farm-raised livestock. The food was packed on June 19th, and then the family went to Comanche Crossing.
"And that’s when we would really have a time," his father said.
Culinary historian Jessica B. Harris noted in her 2011 book, High on the Hog, that "The backbone of Juneteenth festivities has always been the table." Each family brought their own unique dishes.
"You can’t pinpoint how each family would prepare the foods," his father said, "but you know you would see smoked meat for sure because that was our main tradition."
For his family, smoked meat and potato salad were essential. Smoked meat reflects the hog killing ritual, one of the few times enslaved people had control over their food. Potato salad symbolized the abundance of the harvest and the agricultural knowledge of the enslaved.
After emancipation, these traditions became more than just celebrations. They showed what the author calls "emancipatory food power." This is the ability of Black communities to use food for survival, self-determination, and freedom.
A Portal into the Past
As they approached the park’s dance pavilion, his father said, "It seemed much bigger to me as a kid." The current structure is not the original, which burned down in the 1990s. Still, it brought back memories of him and his cousins "running around it and watching the adults dance and just be free."
He thought of Ernie Barnes' 1970s painting, "The Sugar Shack," which shows Black men and women dancing joyfully at a juke joint. These informal gathering places emerged in rural Black communities after emancipation.
Bobby J. Smith II, CC BY-SA
The author watched his father walk around the park. He saw his father's memories as a glimpse into early Juneteenth celebrations. Those who attended were only one or two generations removed from slavery. It showed how much they cherished that day.
Black Texan historian Amilcar Shabazz wrote in his 2004 book, Advancing Democracy: "Before Black Texans had their own history, schools, churches … they had Juneteenth. It may not have looked like much in the eyes of an arrogant world, but it was everything Black Texans had, and they each loved and cherished that day with all their heart … and most important of all, they remembered."
A Homecoming 60 Years in the Making
As they walked back to the car, the author's father seemed like he could have stayed for hours, reminiscing. He kept looking around, as if his family's spirits were still there, sharing dishes and toasting to freedom.
In the car, his tone changed. He spoke about a 1981 tragedy at the park. Three Black boys, known as the "Comanche Three," drowned while being transported by police officers across Lake Mexia. The officers survived, but the circumstances remain unclear.
This tragedy disrupted future Juneteenth celebrations at Comanche Crossing. Visitor numbers dropped dramatically. However, it did not erase the past from the minds of Black Texans like his father. The smell of barbecue, the sound of music, and the love of community and family stayed with him.
Returning to Comanche Crossing after more than 60 years was a homecoming for his father, and for the author too. Through his father's memories, the author connected with the Juneteenth story personally and intellectually.
"I’m glad that I got the chance to see this place again in my lifetime," his father said, holding back tears as Comanche Crossing disappeared in the rearview mirror.
