Americans are celebrating the last day of the long Juneteenth Black Independence Day weekend. Revelers attended the Juneteenth celebration in Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Long Beach, California on Sunday, June 18.
Juneteenth was popularized by Creole singer Beyonce and signed into law as a federal holiday by President Biden in 2021. The holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the South. Juneteenth combines June and the day when Texas declared freedom for slaves on June 19, 1865.
Before it was recognized as a federal holiday, Juneteenth was celebrated by Southern Black Americans who gathered at BBQs, festivals, concerts and baseball games around the Southeast. Now the holiday is celebrated nationwide.
Line dancers stepped during a neighborhood Juneteenth festival in Washington, DC.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (wearing blue ball cap) led Black fathers in “Man Up USA’s Annual Father’s Day Walk and Talk” Juneteenth rally and march that began at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and ended at African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan, New York on Saturday, June 17.
Most major corporations participate in the annual Juneteenth celebration. The Inaugural Juneteenth Jubilee 2.5mi Run/Walk in Sacramento, California was hosted by Greater Sacramento Urban League and Sacramento Juneteenth Inc. in partnership with Black Men Run and Fleet Feet.
Students of the Boston Arts Academy Spirituals Ensemble dance to the sounds of Roy Studmire, who was featured with The Voices of Embrace, at the first Juneteenth Concert, held near The Embrace sculpture, on Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts.
