Find virtual and in-person opportunities to celebrate Juneteenth on the UW–Madison campus and surrounding community.
Juneteenth is celebrated each year on June 19 to commemorate the day in 1865 when U.S. troops liberated nearly 200,000 Black Americans in Texas, bringing freedom to the last enslaved people in the former Confederacy more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. It’s a celebration of freedom and African American history, culture and progress.
UW–Madison will display the Juneteenth flag at Wisconsin Union buildings from June 17–20 as part of the community’s annual celebration of freedom.
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Kujichagulia Madison Juneteenth events
The Kujichagulia Madison Center for Self-Determination, a nonprofit organization that promotes African American cultural and educational events, has organized and hosted Madison’s Juneteenth celebration for more than 30 years.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is proud to sponsor Kujichagulia’s Juneteenth events, which this year will run from June 13–19 with the theme “Black Resilience: Embracing the Past to Define the Future.”
Monday. June 13
- 12 p.m. – Juneteenth Flag Raising (City County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Madison)
- 6 p.m. – Opening Ceremony (online event)
Tuesday, June 14 (online events)
- 10 a.m. – The Empower Lab
- 12 p.m. – Book Workshop: Healing from Trauma (register)
- 4 p.m. – Planning for Your Future (register)
- 6 p.m. – Youth Motivational Presentation (register)
Wednesday, June 15 (online events)
- 10 a.m. – Healing Labs: Who Am I And I Am: Self Determination, Resilience and Empowerment (register)
- 12 p.m. – Healing Labs: Who Am I And I Am: Genetics, DNA and Ancestry (register)
- 2 p.m. – Discussion: Modern Day Slavery (register)
- 6 p.m. – Finger on The Pulse: Voting, Social Injustice and Wellness (register)
Thursday, June 16 (online events)
- 10:30 a.m. – Black Wellness: Hypertension (register)
- 12:30 p.m. – Black Wellness: Cancer in Black & Brown (register)
- 2:30 p.m. – Building Resilience in Mental Health (register)
- 7:30 p.m. – Virtual Open Mic Night (register)
Friday, June 17 (online events)
- 12 p.m. – Health & Wellness: Precision Medicine (register)
- 3 p.m. – Health & Wellness: Autoimmune Diseases in Black Community (register)
- 5 p.m. – Health & Wellness: Kitchen Chemist (register)
Saturday, June 18
- 11 a.m. – Juneteenth Parade (starts at Fountain of Life Covenant Church, 633 W. Badger Road, Madison)
- 12–6 p.m. – Juneteenth Celebration in the Park (Penn Park, 2101 Fisher St., Madison)
Sunday, June 19
- 1 p.m. – National Father’s Day Grill-Off
Saturday Science at Kujichagulia Juneteenth Celebration
The Discovery Connections team from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will be at the Kujichagulia Center’s Juneteenth celebration in Penn Park on Saturday, June 18. Explore science at hands-on stations, chat with scientists from UW–Madison, meet the Kitchen Chemist and more. (Learn More)
Juneteenth weekend events at the Wisconsin Union
Friday, June 17
- 3-5 p.m. – The Wisconsin Union’s Wheelhouse team will host a free Terrace Art Zone featuring Juneteenth history coloring pages.
Saturday, June 18
- 1:30 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Brian Blade Conversation and Q&A, Shannon Hall at Memorial Union, presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Arts + Literature Laboratory
- 2:30 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Free Jazz Concert on the Terrace, presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Arts + Literature Laboratory
- 8 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Shannon Hall at Memorial Union, presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Arts + Literature Laboratory
Sunday, June 19
- 2:30 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Free Jazz Concert on the Terrace, presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Arts + Literature Laboratory
- 8 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Christian McBride, Shannon Hall at Memorial Union, presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Arts + Literature Laboratory
The Madison Jazz Festival will run from June 10–19. The festival will include 10 days of jazz concerts, master classes, talks and more – indoors, outdoors and virtually. For the complete schedule of events, visit madisonjazzfestivalwi.org.
Other Madison-area events
- DreamBank Madison will host “FAMILY: Honoring Juneteenth Through Music,” an online event featuring music and art projects for families with children aged 4+ on Monday, June 13, at 12 p.m. (Learn More)
- DreamBank Madison will host “Juneteenth and the Transformative Power of Time,” an online event featuring Xernona Clayton, founder, president and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation, on Thursday, June 16, from 3–4 p.m. (Learn More)
- The fourth annual Sun Prairie Juneteenth Celebration will offer two days of family-friendly events and programs on Friday, June 17, and Saturday, June 18. (Learn More)
- EOTO Culturally Rooted will host its fifth annual Juneteenth Soul Food Brunch: THE REMIX (Day Party Vibes) on June 19 starting at 1:30 p.m. at the Goodman Community Center. (Learn More)
The history of Juneteenth
The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared freedom for the millions of enslaved people in areas under Confederate rule. However, it wasn’t until the victory of the U.S. over the rebellion in the spring of 1865 that the great majority of African Americans could confidently assert that freedom.
Even after the war ended, slavery persisted in Texas. There, sheltered by distance from federal authority, slaveholders refused to acknowledge the new reality. It was only the arrival of U.S. troops that ended the slaveholders’ power and brought freedom to nearly 200,000 Texans.
Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day) celebrates the official proclamation of that freedom by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865. Black Texans first celebrated the anniversary in 1866, and as the descendants of formerly enslaved Texans spread across the U.S. in the years that followed, they brought the tradition with them. The holiday was first officially recognized by the state of Wisconsin in 2009.
The Juneteenth flag was created in 1997 by Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, and revised in 2000 and 2007 to become the flag that is displayed around the country today. The flag depicts a star surrounded by a nova in the red, white and blue of the American flag, representing a new beginning and the true realization of the freedoms laid out in the Declaration of Independence.
Learn more about Juneteenth
- Find Juneteenth resources in UW Libraries
- Juneteenth – Library of Congress
- Juneteenth Fact Sheet (PDF) – U.S. Congressional Research Service
- Juneteenth: Our Other Independence Day – Smithsonian Magazine
- National Juneteenth Observance Foundation
- The History of Juneteenth by Professor Stephen Kantrowitz – College of Letters & Science
- The Juneteenth Flag: The History Behind Its Colors and Symbols – Reader’s Digest
- What is Juneteenth? by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – PBS.org
