Barrett Station celebrates its 34th annual Homecoming Parade

Barrett Station Homecoming Parade wagon.
Barrett Station Homecoming Parade wagon.

This past week, the town of Barrett Station, Texas continued without fail, celebrating its 34th annual homecoming. This has been a homecoming celebration like none other. If for no other reason, the pandemic environment in which the celebration has taken place. The Barrett Station Community Development Organization, host of this year’s homecoming chose to hold all of the weekly homecoming activities, virtually. And, the virtual activities presented to its residents in the form of Zoom Events on social media (at the AllAboutBarrettStation Facebook page and via Zoom, together), have proven quite successful, with a high rate of viewer participation (reference attached flyer for list of Zoom Events.)

The celebration ended with an actual parade, last Saturday — from Gulf Pump Road @ FM 2100 and proceeding south – and ending up at Riley Chambers Park. The procession began at 11:00 a.m. For safety reasons, the Riley Chambers Park was closed to prevent gathering due to COVID-19. In accordance with safety measures as handed down by local government, all parade participants were strongly encouraged to: practice social distancing, wear masks and wash their hands. This year’s homecoming theme was “One Community, One Voice.”

“Black Town Matters” painted mural.

To emphasize the town’s participation in the #BlackTownsMatter project, the host organization chose to extend its Juneteenth celebration efforts by painting Black Towns Matter murals on two of its streets: Coy Street and Red Oak Avenue. The latter street contains the larger mural that was seen by all participants in the parade as they use said road to access the park. Additionally, the Rev. Frank Joe Landry was chosen as the parade’s grand marshal because he is a sitting mayor of another historically African American town, Old River Winfree, Texas. Who better than to lead the way this year?!