"Harambee" is the Swahili word for "pulling together." Its homes, churches, and businesses span nearly six decades of development from the 1870s through the 1920s. Harambee is the home of nearly 15,000 Milwaukeeans, and its name signifies two things: the African heritage of most residents, and a spirit of "pulling together" that local leaders have been nurturing since the 1970s. Juneteenth Day, which commemorates the abolition of slavery, was observed in the neighborhood, on Third Street, for the first time in 1972. In 1985 the street was rechristened to honor the memory of an American hero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.