Find 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.
Wednesday, June 14
- 5:00 p.m. – Terrace Art Zone: Diamond Art Plus Juneteenth Flag & Coloring Pages (learn more)
Thursday, June 15
- 5:00 p.m. – Terrace Art Zone: Diamond Art Plus Juneteenth Flag & Coloring Pages, Memorial Union Terrace (learn more)
Friday, June 16
- 5:00 p.m. – Juneteenth Opening Ceremony, UW South Madison Partnership (learn more)
- 5:30 p.m. – WPCRC Family Fun Night, Warner Park Community Recreation Center (purchase)
- 5:00 p.m. – Terrace Art Zone: Diamond Art Plus Juneteenth Flag & Coloring Pages, Memorial Union Terrace (learn more)
- 6:00 p.m. – Juneteenth Winedown, Memorial Union (register)
Saturday, June 17
- 10:00 a.m. – Juneteenth in the Park, Penn Park, 2101 Fisher St, Madison (learn more)
- 12:00 p.m. – UW Science Alliance celebrates Juneteenth at Penn Park, explore over a dozen hands-on science stations from noon to 4:00 p.m.
- 2:00 p.m. – Juneteenth at Wetmore Park, Wetmore Park, 555 North Street, Sun Prairie (learn more)
- 5:00 p.m. – Terrace Art Zone: Diamond Art Plus Juneteenth Flag & Coloring Pages, Memorial Union Terrace (learn more)
- 5:00 p.m. – School Daze, Sherman Avenue Methodist Church (learn more)
- 8:00 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix, Shannon Hall, Memorial Union (purchase)
Sunday, June 18
- 1:00 p.m. – Stoughton Juneteenth, Rotary Park, 324 South 6th Street, Stoughton (learn more)
- 2:30 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Juneteenth Celebration, Shannon Hall, Memorial Union (register)
- 3:00 p.m. – Northside Juneteenth/Father’s Day Celebration, Sherman Avenue Methodist Church (learn more)
- 8:00 p.m. – Madison Jazz Festival: Ranky Tanky with Ms. Lisa Fischer, Shannon Hall, Memorial Union (purchase)
- 8:00 p.m. – Burlesque Brunch: Queer Juneteenth edition, The Bur Oak (purchase)
Monday June 19
- 12:00 p.m. – Honoring Juneteenth: Resilience, Reflection & Joy with Melissa Harris-Perry, online (register)
- 5:00 p.m. – McFarland Juneteenth Festival, Arnold Larson Park, 6002 Exchange St, McFarland (learn more)
- 9:00 p.m. – Lakeside Cinema: Black Panther, Memorial Union Terrace (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
