(RNS) — On June 19, 1865, slaves in Galveston, Texas, finally got news of their liberation — two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery.
Ever since, Texans have celebrated the end of slavery on Juneteenth, a melding of the words “June” and “nineteenth.” Juneteenth was designated as a day of observance in Texas in 1980, followed by Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Florida in the 1990s.
A Celebrate Juneteenth sign during a Juneteenth parade on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in East Point, Georgia. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
In 2020, after the deadly police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police, Juneteenth gained recognition nationwide. Between 2020 and 2023, the celebration was made a public holiday in many states, including Kentucky, Minnesota, Louisiana, Utah, and the District of Columbia. President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth a national holiday in 2021.
This year, as the Trump administration targets initiatives related to Black history to roll back federal commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, uncertainty looms around any potential Juneteenth celebrations at the White House. And in some cities — including Indianapolis; Bend, Oregon; and Plano, Illinois — Juneteenth celebrations have been canceled.
Across the country, faith groups are gearing up for Juneteenth events that weave spirituality and history. Here’s a sampling.
An ecumenical prayer service
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is organizing an ecumenical prayer service on Juneteenth at the Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York City. Titled “Healing the Wounds of Slavery,” it is based on an Akathist hymn, a devotional poem praising the Virgin Mary.
The service, coordinated by the Greek Orthodox Church’s Mission to the African Diaspora in the Americas West Indies and the Caribbean, will honor “the saints of Africa, and American luminaries, the Holy ones who strove during the ills of slavery in the Americas, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow semi slavery and segregation.”
A day of work restoring a Black cemetery
For Juneteenth, members of St. Clare’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will help restore Washtenaw County’s only Black cemetery. Opened in 1946 by Pastor Garther Roberson Sr., the Woodlawn cemetery is the resting place of approximately 150 African Americans who couldn’t be buried in other cemeteries during segregation.
Participants in the Woodlawn cemetery restoration day of service will learn how to remove overgrowth, find lost headstones, and help document the history of the site. A flyer for the event advises participants to bring gardening tools.
A Juneteenth marketplace
New Birth Missionary Baptist Church will showcase 100 Black-owned businesses at a pop-up marketplace to promote Black entrepreneurship. The event will be held on Saturday (June 21) and Sunday (June 22), at the church’s Family Life Center in Stonecrest, Georgia.
The event is a continuation of the church’s recent Bullseye Black Market. On Easter weekend, the congregation hosted a three-day marketplace as part of a boycott of Target stores to protest the company’s rollback on its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.
“The Juneteenth marketplace is not just a marketplace, it’s a movement,” said the Rev. Jamal Bryant, senior pastor at New Birth. “We are building an ecosystem where Black businesses thrive, families build generational wealth, and our communities control their financial future.”
A Juneteenth prayer and meditation
On Juneteenth, a group of Christian leaders from Richmond, Virginia, will organize a morning of prayer at Richmond Hill, an ecumenical retreat center and residence.
The event will include a meditation led by members of the Wellness Collective, a local Black-owned wellness studio that describes itself as a “community-driven force, centered around restorative practices and healing from historical, generational, and racial trauma.” At noon, the center will host a prayer service with a gospel concert. The Rev. Tom Baynham of Grace United Methodist Church in St. Louis and Brian Hehn, a liturgical worship leader at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Maryland, will sing a medley of spirituals.
An archaeological exhibit on an 1830s African Methodist Episcopal church
On Juneteenth, members of Ithaca’s St. James African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Cornell University students and faculty will unveil an exhibit presenting the findings of their three-year archaeological dig on the church’s site. The exhibit, “Sacred Ground: Excavating Black History at Ithaca’s Freedom Church,” will be displayed through the end of the year at the History Center on the Ithaca Commons in New York.
The excavation started in 2021, as part of the Underground Railroad Research Project. St. James, founded in the 1830s and visited by abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, is one of the oldest AME Zion churches in the country.
“The exhibit at the History Center will invite people to connect in new ways with our historic town and amplify the underrepresented story of the St. James AME Zion Church and the Underground Railroad in our area of New York,” said Lori Khatchadourian, who co-directed the excavations.
A Juneteenth concert inspired by Langston Hughes’ poems
On Thursday afternoon, the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown in Philadelphia will host a Juneteenth concert celebrating the work of Black composer William Grant Still Jr. and poet Langston Hughes.
The performance will begin at 3 p.m. and include songs by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and the late Leslie Adams, as well as songs created for the occasion. The show is presented by the Delaware Valley Opera Company and will help raise funds for the troupe’s 2025-2026 season.
A Black and Jewish Juneteenth
On Sunday, Beth El Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Voorhees, New Jersey, will host a Juneteenth “Jewbilee.” Now in its third year, the event celebrates both Juneteenth and Black Jewish identity.
The college-themed celebration will include a kosher barbecue and games.
The event is organized by Achim Sheli, a nonprofit that celebrates ethnic and cultural diversity within the Jewish community.
An online Juneteenth Mass
Starting at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Pax Christi USA, a Catholic anti-war organization, will host an online Mass for Juneteenth. The Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. Warren Harvey, a member of the Little Rock Diocesan Council for Black Catholics.
A Black marketplace
Hutchinson Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, will host a Juneteenth marketplace celebrating “Black excellence, freedom, and the power of entrepreneurship” on Thursday.
The Reimagining Black Wall Street Expo will start with a worship service at 9:30 a.m. and spotlight Black-owned businesses. Throughout the day, participants will enjoy food trucks, live music, and games. Free health screenings and community resources will also be offered.
The church was central in the 1950s Montgomery bus boycott movement and was bombed because of its involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
