BOSTON -- Juneteenth flag designer Ben Haith stood on the mound at Fenway Park before the Red Sox hosted the Yankees on Sunday, waving his arms to pump up the crowd.
A collection of Black community leaders and Red Sox employees fanned out behind him, all wearing special Juneteenth commemorative jerseys that bore Haith's creation on the back.
"It feels like I'm living in a miracle," Haith said before throwing a ceremonial first pitch as part of baseball's commemoration of Juneteenth, which marks the date that news of the end of slavery reached Texas -- two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.