Find opportunities to celebrate Juneteenth on campus and in the 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. 2025 marks the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth.
In honor of Juneteenth, at sunrise, there will be a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony at both Memorial Union and Union South. The School of Medicine and Public Health will also be hosting a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony from 7:30–9:30 a.m. at their Eastpark Medical Center located at 4621 Eastpark Blvd.
The Chazen Museum of Art will be hosting an hour-long special guided tour of their collection in honor of Juneteenth at noon. Registration is not required but appreciated. Walk-ins will be welcome as capacity allows.
Find other Juneteenth events in the Madison area here.
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
