COLUMBUS, Ohio — Organizations and communities across the city are planning events and celebrations in honor of Juneteenth, an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the country after the Civil War.
Juneteenth is celebrated every year on June 19 and is a federal holiday in the United States.
Who’s holding events this year in or near Columbus?
Gahanna
Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, 425 S. Hamilton Rd., Gahanna
There will be an array of speakers and musicians at the city’s Juneteenth event on June 19. The event will take place from 4-7 p.m.
Hilliard
Municipal Park Amphitheater, 3800 Veterans Memorial Dr., Hilliard
Community members can celebrate the day on June 19 from 9-11 a.m. with live music, a community art project and “walk and read” The Juneteenth Story, written by Alliah Agostini Livingstone.
Juneteenth and Father’s Day Celebration
Grange Insurance Audubon Center, 505 W. Whittier St.
Columbus-born author, photographer and filmmaker Dudley Edmondson will speak about making the outdoors more inclusive. He will then lead a bird hike. Crafted Culture Brewery will be on-site serving free samples. The event is on June 16 from 2-5 p.m.
Juneteenth Ohio Festival
Genoa Park, 303 West Broad Street, Columbus
On June 15 and 16, the 27th annual Juneteenth Ohio Festival will be held. There will be food, music, games and more.
King Arts Complex | Juneteenth Commemoration
835 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus
King Arts Complex is hosting an event that will include a community yard sale, food, music, vendors and a poetry slam to celebrate the holiday. There are also virtual programs that community members can watch if they can’t make it out.
New Albany
Hinson Amphitheater, 170 E Dublin Granville Rd., New Albany
On June 19, the city of New Albany will hold a celebration from 4-8 p.m. featuring dance and drumming, spoken word, music, kids’ activities, food trucks, vendors and more.
Ohio History Connection | Juneteenth-Jubilee Day Festival
800 E 17th Ave Columbus
On June 16, a special panel will begin as early as 10:15 a.m. in Ohio Village called “Cultural Conversations: Evolution of Black Imagery.” It will open the festival in the Ohio History Center. A second panel “Afrofuturism” will close it at 3:45 p.m. The event is free, though registration is preferred.
Reynoldsburg
Huber Park, 1640 Davidson Dr., Reynoldsburg
The city of Reynoldsburg will celebrate Juneteenth on June 18 from 4-8 p.m. There will be entertainment, food, free haircuts from Barber Zone Mobile Unit and free henna from Henna by Herra.
HOW DID JUNETEENTH START?
The celebrations began with enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. Although President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Even then, some white people who had profited from their unpaid labor were reluctant to share the news.
Laura Smalley, freed from a plantation near Bellville, Texas, remembered in a 1941 interview that the man she referred to as “old master” came home from fighting in the Civil War and didn't tell the people he enslaved what had happened.
“Old master didn’t tell, you know, they was free,” Smalley said. “I think now they say they worked them, six months after that. Six months. And turn them loose on the 19th of June. That’s why, you know, we celebrate that day.”
News that the war had ended and they were free finally reached Galveston when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Gulf Coast city on June 19, 1865, more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.
Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
Slavery was permanently abolished six months later when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment. And the next year, the now-free people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world. Events include concerts, parades and readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.
WHAT DOES 'JUNETEENTH’ MEAN?
It's a blend of the words June and nineteenth. The holiday has also been called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, second Independence Day and Emancipation Day.
It began with church picnics and speeches and spread as Black Texans moved elsewhere.
U.S. states now hold celebrations honoring Juneteenth as a holiday or a day of recognition, like Flag Day. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees. Hundreds of companies give workers the day off.
