CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News)—While Katy-area residents and visitors celebrated Juneteenth Saturday with a parade and festival at Woodsland Park, 443 Danover Road, two authors, one of them local, promoted books that saluted the spirit of the holiday.
Demeca Burton's children's book, "Little Black Girls—Big Big World," has been around since the pandemic, but Burton and her family are newcomers to the Katy area and Saturday's festival was her first chance to promote the book here.
"The book was inspired by my two young daughters, and when they were young, there was a lack of representation in the storybooks that they would read," Burton said. "And so, I decided to create a book that had characters that looked like them so that they can see that they too can aspire to greatness."
Burton said it took her about five months to write her book.
"I sketched out all the illustrations, and then I worked with an illustrator to actually bring my vision to life," Burton said. "The book came out after the pandemic," but she noted it was her first time selling it at the Juneteenth Parade in Katy.
At another booth, Abbie P. Huckleby sold her book, "Faith, Favor, and Funding: How One Mother's Determination Turned Scholarships into Generational Blessings."
Huckleby and her family live in Terrell, east of Dallas. Her husband, Stacy, said his wife decided to write the book to share how she identified scholarship opportunities for her two daughters to attend college.
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
Demeca Burton
Brock serves as grand marshal for Katy parade
Dr. Ralph Brock, a Katy orthodontist who has long been active in the Katy Rotary Club, served as grand marshal. Saturday's festivities drew several hundred people, with the weather humid but cooperating after several days of rain in Katy.
Saturday's celebration was among other Juneteenth observances in the Katy area. On Friday, Brookshire celebrated Juneteenth with a parade that ran from the Brookshire Police Department headquarters to the city's amphitheater where there were holiday festivities.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union troops announced the end of slavery in Galveston, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The delay stemmed from Texas's geographic isolation and the near-absence of Union military presence there during the war. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued Jan. 1, 1863, had no practical force in Confederate territory without troops to enforce it. Texas, the westernmost Confederate state, saw little direct Union military engagement, leaving enslavers there free to ignore the proclamation until Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with federal troops on June 19, 1865, and read General Order No. 3, declaring all enslaved people in Texas free. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
1 of 5
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
Parade Grand Marshal Dr. Ralph Brock rides in the 2026 Juneteenth parade in the City of Katy.
2 of 5
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
Members of Omega Psi Phi march in the 2026 Juneteenth parade in the City of Katy.
3 of 5
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
For You Church of Katy had motorcyclists and walkers in the 2026 Juneteenth parade in the City of Katy.
4 of 5
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
Children play at Woodsland Park at Juneteenth 2026 festivities in the City of Katy.
5 of 5
Covering Katy News/George Slaughter
Mayor Dusty Thiele welcomes visitors to Woodsland Park for the 2026 Juneteenth celebrations.