June Dinner has always been big, big in Wilmar.

Today we're celebrating our Juneteenth, which in Wilmar is called the June Dinner.

And we've been celebrating it since the late 1800s.

This small town of roughly 500 residents multiplies in size every June with a celebration that has spanned over 150 years.

We are so grateful that now everybody in the state, everybody in the nation knows Juneteenth.

We knew we were doing a Juneteenth celebration, but our Juneteenth was called June Dinner.

June 19th, 1865.

The last remaining slaves in Galveston, Texas, were notified by union soldiers that slavery had been abolished a little more than two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

This day would become known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day.

We are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, that celebrates Juneteenth in Arkansas.

For history, we spoke to Mr. Albert Simmons and he said that Wilmar had been celebrating it even when he was a boy, and he was born in 1888.

He talked about all the activities that they would do here.

They would have bands coming in, people coming in by the horse and buggy on the train any way that they could.

They would come into Wilmar for that day.

Back in 96, we had Dr. Marrows and came to us to talk about getting Juneteenth as a national holiday.

He wanted us to be a part of that because we had been celebrating here so long.

And that's basically when we start saying Juneteenth here in Wilmar.

It was in 1868 that the first Juneteenth was in Arkansas that's based on matching these oral history stories.

But as far as like the actual date, we don't know.

We can only guess.

But it was in 1800.

There's no other festival in the state of Arkansas that started in 1800.

My grandfather’s, grandfather.

brought June Dinner back to Wilmar Arkansas.

My grandfather was born in 1908.

The concept of June Dinner was instilled in him based on oral history.

how many years would it take a freed slave who didn't know where they were, who didn't know the terrain or where they were going to be able to walk back to Arkansas, where they were sold from.

And they didn't start running back to Arkansas.

So they had to wait to make sure if they were free or not.

Some of them didn't believe it, some of them they weren't ready to go.

They didn't know what to do.

When they were sold to this plantation in Texas, they had left their baby on the plantation with the mama of the plantation.

So they were walking back to see that child.

But when they got back, the child didn’t recognize them.

So they went on and started another part of the family.

And that part of the family, included my grandfather.

We have always called it June dinner here in Wilmar because that's the way it started out when our ancestors found out about the slaves being freed.

They started celebrating.

It was just one big dinner on this campus right here.

Everybody got together and brought a dish of their own to this event, That they had set aside to have a dinner together to celebrate freedom.

It became so popular that they continue it from its conception up until now.

June dinner was so anticipated that people could hardly contain the excitement once June rolled in, because that's all they had the whole year long.

This one day.

That was the only day that me as a child could walk around without being with my mom.

That was a day of freedom for a kid.

From the original June dinner to now.

The celebration has always been held at the same spot.

That was the Wilmar “colored” school.

That's the sacred ground up there.

That's where everyone received their education.

That was the only public property Black people had access to, to be allowed to do anything.

You can't move it from there because it's too close to everybody’s heart.

I tried to see these newly freed slaves, bringing to the table something from their home so that everybody can get some of it and they feel like they're participating in this dinner.

They didn't have cows, so they use goat, they used greens.

They used what they had to cook with to bring to the dinner.

And then they started branching out into activities that coincide with that.

Then over time, June dinner has grown to include new traditions in their Juneteenth celebration.

Today, the city of Wilmar kicks off the festivities with a parade.

We have people coming in here today from all over the United States.

We expect at least 2500 people to come through here during the day.

Hey, Hey.

All the way from Anchorage, Alaska.

Chicago.

I'm a visitor.

Wilmar, I’m at home.

What started out as a one day event has now grown into a full weekend of festivities with activities that include a car show, pageants and even a burn out competition.

People plan their family reunions around this day because it gives them an opportunity to see a lot of loved ones and different people that they grew up with.

I come here every year to see my family.

Ain’t nothing like family.

Family is energy to me.

If not for the roots your elders went down, none of this would have been conceivable.

So thank them for their love and care, because with these gifts, anything’s achievable.

A few moments ago, we passed out bracelets.

They have a heart on them, representative of a family's love.

You don't always have to be together to know that your family loves you, to know that they're a part of you.

So this is a reminder that we wanted to send everybody with.

On paper, The city of Wilmer may seem just like a spot on the map.

It may be small, but this town is strong and rich in tradition.

When I became mayor, I had already invested so much in my life, just in the community.

Even if I wasn't the mayor, I'd still be investing myself into the community.

As for what does it mean to this community?

It's mostly just the people that come together and just show love.

When people can't make it home for June Dinner they sittin’ up there riddled with guilt and heartache because they can't make it.

Because they know everybody else is here and everybody's hugging and laughing and having the good time.

June Dinner, Juneteenth That's our time of the year to come home.

When we leave, on our way home we make reservations at the hotel for the following year.

This is my home.

People travel, they go to the beach and they do this.

But come June, they're right back here in Wilmar, waiting for June Dinner.