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
Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival
Creekside’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration honors African American history and culture with a vibrant event showcasing music, art, dance and community. It takes place on June 14, starting at 11 a.m.
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.
Juneteenth Ohio Festival
Genoa Park, 303 West Broad St., Columbus
On June 21 and 22, the 28th annual Juneteenth Ohio Festival will be held. There will be food, music, games and more.
New Albany
Hinson Amphitheater, 170 E Dublin Granville Road, New Albany
On June 19, the city of New Albany will hold a celebration from 6-9 p.m. featuring a lineup of vendors, artists and performers, creating a vibrant celebration of culture and community.
Ohio History Connection | Juneteenth-Jubilee Day Festival
800 E 17th Ave., Columbus
The Jubilee Day Festival is a vibrant celebration that brings together a rich tapestry of culture, history and community spirit. This event will feature a variety of educational and uplifting performances, including reenactments that bring history to life. It will run from noon to 4 p.m. and admission is free.
Reynoldsburg
Huber Park, 1640 Davidson Drive, Reynoldsburg
The city of Reynoldsburg will celebrate Juneteenth on June 14 from 4-8 p.m. There will be entertainment, food, a mobile barber, a photo booth and quilt making.
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.
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