Attendees of Long Beach’s 4th annual Juneteenth celebration dance at Shoreline Aquatic Park on Saturday, June 15, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)
For Pastor Rob Shropshire, it is crucial to stop for Juneteenth and take the day to focus on and celebrate Black freedom and community joy.
“If you don’t have it off, you take it off out of honor and respect for the day,” said Shropshire, who is organizing a Juneteenth Freedom Day Celebration at Cal State San Bernardino with his nonprofit, Love4Us. “Juneteenth is on June 19, not the 15th, not the 18th. We have to celebrate it on that day, and we do it because we love our community. We want people to learn what this day is all about.”
The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the formal end of slavery after the Civil War, when the last enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas were notified of their freedom on June 19, 1865 — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
Shropshire said he hopes to commemorate the day through art and music – Wednesday’s “Love4Us Freedom Day Celebration” will include live performances, DJs and a special retelling of origin of the Civil Rights Movement’s “battle cry” anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”
Shropshire said that his now-deceased grandmother, Louise Shropshire, was an activist and musician who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and helped write the lyrical foundations of what became the song “We Shall Overcome.” Though Louise Shropshire was not initially known to the public, her grandson said the struggle for her recognition, and for the song to be in the public domain, is a reminder for Black people to dig into their history. And that’s the message he hopes everyone will take away during Juneteenth.
“These are things we should know about as Black people. Our intellectual property, things that were stolen from us… but this was one thing we were able to take back,” Shropshire said. “During those days of slavery, our people were damaged, and that damage would carry on over generations and generations. So we have the responsibility of correcting that damage, especially within our community.”
Juneteenth Freedom Day attendees in San Bernardino will be able to learn history, engage in community activities and support Black-owned businesses; all while keeping the true message of Juneteenth alive, he said.
“The most important word in there is ‘Freedom.’ Are we free yet? Not completely – there’s still work that we need to do. And that’s what I hope people will take away, that our ancestors started, lived and died for freedom. But they also left work for us to do,” Shropshire said. “The only way we can is to rally together as Black people, leaving out everything that divides us outside of that; rally around the love. That’s what got us this far.”
Three years after becoming a federal holiday, Juneteenth is honored across the nation and in Southern California with local celebrations, arts and music-filled festivals, lively cook-outs, wellness workshops and more.
From a jazz and arts festival in Pomona to city-wide celebrations in Long Beach, Buena Park, Pasadena and Redlands, recent and upcoming Juneteenth events across the region promise to highlight and uplift Black culture.
“Looking back at our legacy, our heritage, how far we’ve come, and so much work that we have to do today to continue moving forward as a community. The reality of Juneteenth is American history,” said Inglewood resident Alfred Torregano, director of the annual Leimert Park Juneteenth Festival. “It’s equivalent to the Independence Day of the African American.”
This year’s Juneteenth is a bit “bittersweet” for his community, Torregano said. Officials had to postpone the longtime community event to 2025 due to financial constraints and safety concerns. But the South L.A. neighborhood will still be celebrating locally through sharing food, supporting Black businesses, live music and coming together, he said.
For El Segundo resident Tanya Taylor, Juneteenth is an ongoing celebration. Taylor, the executive director of nonprofit Black in Mayberry, spends weeks getting ready for community events – including a festival already held in El Segundo, Manhattan Beach’s June 19 ceremony, and a Juneteenth-themed exhibition and artists’ panel in Venice, in partnership with the Experimentally Structured Museum of Art
The Black in Mayberry Juneteenth art exhibit, now open through June 23, explores modern-day slavery through topics such as over-policing and prison labor, asking questions such as “Are we free yet?”
Different mediums of art can open the door for Black Americans to process ponderous topics of racism and slavery through and with the community, which can “maintain freedom” and be a source of joy, Taylor said.
“We acknowledge all the contributions that have been made by African American people to the fabric of America… by demonstrating Black excellence in the arts,” Taylor said. “Freedom is a right we all deserve as human beings. But we have to fight for it, and the freedoms of many people in America had to be fought for. People underestimate how quickly things can backflip or reverse.”
Los Angeles resident and author Anita Obasi is organizing a June 19 and June Pride Month-centric event through the group Sapphic L.A. She said that Black people have been celebrating Juneteenth for years before it was federally recognized – but now that more people have the day off, it helps to “widen the audience of celebration.”
Society is in “an early stage” where “we can carve out what this (Juneteenth) holiday means and how we celebrate,” Obasi said. She plans to do so by intentionally releasing a “Sapphic L.A. city guide” to queer-friendly spaces in L.A. on Juneteenth – the “Blackest day of the year in the queerest month of the year” – at Sip & Sonder in Inglewood.
“That intersection of being Black and queer is extremely important to me, because it is me,” Obasi said. “Intersectionality is something that I feel often goes overlooked when discussing queer or Black experiences. How can we put at the forefront the importance of being aware of intersectionality? For me, that looks like handing out pre-orders at a coffee shop that is also Black female-owned.”
Orange County Heritage Council President Dwayne Shipp — whose mother Helen Shipp founded the county’s longtime Black History Month parade — is one of the organizers behind a Juneteenth festival celebrated over the weekend in Anaheim’s Pearson Park. With the theme “Freedom is Not Free,” it was one of the biggest Juneteenth events in Orange County, Shipp said.
“Juneteenth highlights the rich culture and contributions of the Black community, while educating our neighbors through history and bridging the gap through a collective celebration… which is especially crucial in a diverse region like O.C.,” Shipp said. “We are celebrating a ‘turning point’ in American, not just Black, history. It fosters a sense of solidarity (and) encourages ongoing dialogue about African American injustice. Its impact extends beyond a single day or event — but is a reminder of our shared responsibility, continuing the inclusive work to our society, honoring the past while inspiring the future.”
BIPOC Orange County and the city of Irvine are teaming up again to host a growing celebration of Juneteenth on Saturday, June 22, at the Irvine Great Park. The afternoon will feature music and dance as well as poetry readings and other live performances. There will be art displays and more from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Kayla Booker, founder of The B.L.A.C.K. Collective nonprofit, was recently honored to have her now four-year-old Juneteenth festival in Riverside recognized by Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside.
She argued that Black history is not taught exclusively in schools – so these events are crucial to support.
“Just like people celebrate the Fourth of July, this is our freedom day. It’s the day for our community to rejoice, that our ancestors were finally able to leave behind slavery, to connect with their families, to move and find opportunity,” Booker said. “It’s important for generations to know our community’s resilience, the activism Black people have today. Even if we are still going through rough times, we can make it through because our ancestors (did).”
