Minneapolis marks Juneteenth after official holiday recognition

Some residents see the move to declare Juneteenth a holiday as tokenistic as others see a sign of hope.

Minneapolis, United States – On a sunny summer morning in George Floyd Square, a gardener lights palo santo in a small wooden dish near the now infamous black and white mural of Floyd. In an adjacent church parking lot an inflatable, Sponge-Bob-themed bouncy house has been erected. Inside, kids are bouncing around and kicking an inflatable beach ball as hot dogs, burgers, and brats simmer on a black barrel grill nearby. “For Juneteenth this year, it’s something special. We’re focusing on the future and the future is the kids,” James Johnson of Worldwide Outreach for Christ church tells Al Jazeera. “For it now to be a national holiday, it’s something special and we want to express that.”