On Friday, a historic walking tour will culminate near Washington Square Park, with a "live presentation showing how slaves were treated, with African-Americans in chains like how it was done in the slave ships, with whips, as if they were coming off [the ships] at Penn's Landing," says Ron Brown, founder and president of the Pennsylvania Juneteenth Coalition. There will also be traditional music and drumming to accurately re-create the scenes. "But, we have to be very sensitive, because we're expecting lots of schoolkids."

The event marks the day in 1865 when Union Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Texas and freed America's last remaining slaves about two and a half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. (The coalition --www.pennsylvaniajuneteenth.com—is organizing the four-day commemoration along with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the African American Museum and other institutions.) The ceremony's focal point comes at 9:30 a.m. Monday, when a procession of the Third United States Colored Troops will carry a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation—one of 22 scattered across historic societies—from the HSP (1300 Locust St.) to the African American Museum (Seventh and Race streets). There, children will read the historical document aloud.

Although Juneteenth has been celebrated in the Philadelphia area for only 11 years, organizers say the festival is growing. According to Brown, the impetus was a state-sponsored survey concluding that Pennsylvanians aren't just history fanatics, they are specifically drawn to Civil War and Underground Railroad events, making Juneteenth the perfect pitch to draw tourists and their money. And with money, or the idea of money, came more institutions and organizations looking to get involved. (In the past, Juneteenth was a one-day event.) Two years ago, the event's growing popularity helped pull the African American Museum out of a fiscal crisis.

"[Juneteenth] isn't just about helpless slaves being freed by union soldiers," said Deborah Raksany, HSP spokeswoman. "It's about the city's African-American history, since we had a very active free-slave population here that many people don't realize, and the African-American role in emancipation."

Taking it a step further is Brown, who says Juneteenth can be "an umbrella under which all cultures can come together and celebrate freedom, not just for one, but for all."