celebrate freedom

Austin celebrates first Juneteenth as official city holiday with parade, live music, and more

Celebrate Juneteenth in Austin.

Black Austin Coalition Facebook

So many holidays feel like the distant past, but Juneteenth is one of our newest, both in spirit and in Austin’s official books.

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston with long overdue news: Enslaved people in rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” This oral declaration came two years and six and a half months after the Emancipation Proclamation was officially signed.

Celebrations began immediately, but the first official Juneteenth started the next year. In 2020, all those years later, the Austin City Council voted to adopt Juneteenth as an official city holiday. (The U.S. Congress just passed legislation this week to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.) In the same Austin City Council session, members passed a resolution by council member Natasha Harper-Madison to declare racism a public health crisis.

This Juneteenth, seven organizations are teaming up for a free 12-hour celebration and day of reflection, Juneteenth 2021: Stay Black and Live Vol. 2. Six Square, Austin’s state-designated Black cultural district, which is the only one of its kind in the state of Texas, and African American history preserver the Carver Museum are heading up the bulk of the day’s events. They’re joined by Black Austin Coalition, Jump On It, the Austin Area Urban League, Austin Justice Coalition, and GEAYA.

GEAYA and the Austin Area Urban League are getting things started at 10 am on Saturday, June 19 with a car parade, following the 2020 route mostly down Chicon Street from the Oakwood Cemetery to Rosewood Park. The end location was originally purchased in 1905 by the Negro Park Association and named Emancipation Park, which was in turn seized by the city and turned into the country’s first federal housing project for African Americans. There, Six Square and the Carver Museum will provide a free lunch served by the 10,000 Fearless First Responders.

A live stream presented by the two organizations will follow, starting with a panel discussion moderated by the Carver’s Carre Adams about the holiday’s history with speakers Lisa B. Thompson and Charles Daniel Carson from the African and African American studies department at the University of Texas.

Then DJ Nook will take over with entertainers Freedom Desk for music and spoken-word performances. Freedom Desk features award-winning husband-and-wife hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm, blithely confrontational lesbian rapper Mama Duke, and introspective first-generation Ethiopian-American R&B singer Mélat.

A raffle benefiting Six Square will offer two local prizes: a year of free Amy’s Ice Creams and an hour-long facial by Elemint Skin Studio. Other prizes come from Fitbit, Lush, and Ninja. Raffle tickets start at 10 tickets for $10, and are available up to two hours in advance of the 5 pm drawing.

The events wrap up with a five-hour after-party in the park, hosted by Jump On It and the Black Austin Coalition. There will be live entertainment with DJ sets and surprise guests, and a food and retail market, plus flag football, kickball, and water games. Finally, the Black Leaders Collective brings a closing fireworks show.

This Juneteenth celebration is a comeback from last year’s more limited pre-vax events. Visit Eventbrite to pick up free tickets, and budget for extra goodies from local businesses. Those who can’t make it can stream the celebration live on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch.

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Defensive Driving

Austin-based Tesla faces new probe focused on remote driving feature

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 2.6 million Teslas.

Federal regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday, January 7 that Austin-based Tesla did not report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on “publicly accessible roads” involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology.

The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

One driver filed a complaint after a crash while using Tesla's “Actually Smart Summon” technology and NHTSA is looking into another three similar incidents based on media reports, the NHTSA said. The agency is looking into 12 total incidents reported by users of the technology.

Each of the vehicles failed to detect posts and other parked vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

Regulators say the vehicles struck objects because the users had "too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”

Shares of Tesla Inc. slid more than 4 percent in late afternoon trading Tuesday.

Musk has complained that U.S. regulations are too onerous and are holding back the development of self-driving cars. Ethics experts are worried that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Musk will push him to ease oversight of Tesla, which just suffered its first decline in annual sales in more than a decade.

Musk donated an estimated $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign and is a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, vetting cabinet nominees and meeting with foreign heads of state. Trump has put Musk in charge of an advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, that will recommend where to cut government expenses and staff at federal agencies and reduce regulation.

The NHTSA said it will look into the top speed that Teslas can reach when users deploy its “summons” technology, as well as restrictions on public roads and line of sights requirements. It also said it expects to check for any “connectivity delays" with the app that could result in increased stopping distance.

Tesla’s Model 3 owner’s manual says that its “summons” feature is designed for use only in parking lots and driveways on private property and is disabled on public roads.

The new probe covers 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles, 2017-2025 Model 3, 2020-2025 Model Y equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving driver assistance system.

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