Boynton Beach residents gathered Saturday at Sarah Sims Park for a Unity Festival march and a symbolic burning of three ordinances the Boynton Beach City Commission recently repealed.

The repeal and the public burning focused on ordinances identified by number — 37, 47 and 136 — that residents and speakers described as segregation-era “sundown” rules restricting where Black residents could be after dark. The commission voted unanimously to remove the ordinances from the city code, according to remarks at the event.

The repeal was framed at the festival as both a corrective step and a symbolic reckoning. An event speaker said, "When you know better, you do better," and led the crowd in a countdown before burning copies of the three ordinances.

Longtime residents recounted everyday restrictions under the old rules. Lynn Leverette, who said she was a young girl when the ordinances were enforced, described being routed across a highway to get to school because African Americans were not permitted on Ocean Avenue. "I lived it, and now I'm I'm I'm still alive to see it being removed," Leverette said.

Other speakers described the rules as classic sundown measures, enforced by threat and local custom. One participant recalled: "The Negroes were caught outside that district after 9 or 10:00 at night. You could be punished, not excluding hanging from a tree." That recollection was offered as a personal memory of how the ordinances were used to police Black residents' movements.

Local churches that have served as historic centers of community and civil-rights organizing were highlighted during the event. Speakers referenced Saint John Missionary Baptist Church and Greater Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church as places that provided sanctuary and leadership during the era when the ordinances were in force.

The event combined ceremony and celebration: a march from City Hall to Sarah Sims Park, the burning of paper copies of the three ordinances, and a block-party program intended to underscore community unity. Organizers described the ordinances as more than legal relics, saying their removal and the burn were meant to reject a painful past and reaffirm an inclusive future.

Organizers and speakers repeatedly described the ordinances as more than several decades old, saying they had been on the books for "over a hundred years" in some form; the speakers did not provide the ordinances' adoption dates or the exact years of enforcement at the event.

The City Commission's unanimous repeal was referenced repeatedly during the festival remarks; the transcript of the event records the commission vote but does not provide the text of the repeal motion, the names of the mover and seconder, or a roll-call tally. Organizers said the vote removed the three numbered ordinances from the municipal code, and the symbolic burning followed.

Speakers emphasized the ceremony's symbolic nature: the burning represents public repudiation of segregation-era laws rather than a legal requirement (the ordinances had already been identified and removed by the commission). The event included prayers, historical recollections, music and testimony from former participants in local community programs.

The festival also highlighted past community efforts to support youth and build trust with law enforcement, including mentions of an early Recreation Athletic Police (RAP) program and volunteer coaches who worked with neighborhood children. Those accounts were offered as part of a broader narrative of resilience and community-building following decades of segregation.

City officials were referenced as having acted through a formal vote to repeal the ordinances; the festival served as a public, symbolic follow-up to that legislative action. Organizers urged other cities to review their municipal codes for similar provisions and to take comparable public steps if they find discriminatory laws on the books.

The event closed with music and a block-party celebration intended to mark both the history recounted and a pledge to continue work toward unity and inclusion in Boynton Beach.