JUNETEENTH RESOURCES

Educate 

  • Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in 1863, Juneteenth celebrates the day this news reached the last enslaved population in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. 
  • The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal in Dec. 1865. However, slavery’s legacy continued to impede freedom for years to come and continues to contribute to inequality and injustice today. 
  • In 2021, President Biden signed a bill passed by Congress making June 19 a federal holiday 
  • Opal Lee is an activist who was instrumental in Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday. In 2016 at the age of 89, she decided to walk from her home in Fort Worth, TX to Washington, DC in an effort to have Juneteenth recognized. She walked 2 and a half miles every day to symbolize the two and a half years that black Texans waited to be emancipated.

Celebrate

  • Celebrate with live music, food, art vendors and more at the Leimert Park Juneteenth Festival 
  • Gather For Good’s Annual Juneteenth Charity Pie Sale is happening Saturday, June 15th from 11am – 1pm in Culver City with over 100 pies made by LA chefs.

  • The LA Kings recognize Juneteenth as a day of celebration and reflection. How we’re celebrating: 

    • The Kings Care Foundation is partnering with the Dodgers Youth Foundation to share the story of Herb Carnegie and Buck O’Neil with many of our community partners. These two trailblazers in their sports were excluded from playing in the highest professional leagues of the sports they loved because of their race.
    • Learn more about their stories through the documentary “Beyond Their Years”.