Juneteenth (June 19) is a momentous day in American history that marked the actual end of African-American slavery in the United States, some two and half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been made effective. On June 19, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger publicly read General Order No. 3 after his arrival in Galveston, Texas with 2,000 Union troops, declaring that all formerly enslaved people in the state were now freed. As Texas was the largest and furthest slave-holding state from the North, Union presence had been insufficient to enforce Lincoln’s Executive Order, and slave owners had generally ignored it, making Texas the last state to free its slaves. This order enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation effectively ended institutional African-American slavery in the U.S.

A number of songs have become associated with Juneteenth specifically, perhaps most prominent among them is “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” written as a poem in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson as a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and set to music in 1905 by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson. Called “the Negro National Hymn” by the NAACP, the spiritual classic has been recorded by musicians ranging from Beyoncé to major jazz artists including Jason Moran, Charles Lloyd, Hank Crawford and Jimmy McGriff, Cyrus Chestnut, Jazzmeia Horn, Joey DeFrancesco, Brandee Younger, Russell Malone, Eric Reed, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Winard Harper, Nnenna Freelon, and recently by the SFJAZZ Collective (arranged by Warren Wolf, and featuring vocals by Martin Luther McCoy).

This day is rightly seen as a joyous celebration of freedom and a call for education, action, and reflection. SFJAZZ will continue to recognize Juneteenth as an organization-wide holiday.

To help celebrate and educate, we have assembled a list of local public events and resources that further illuminate the history of the holiday.

Discover Juneteenth Events in San Francisco

Discover Juneteenth Events in Oakland

Vallejo Juneteenth Festival & Parade
Saturday, June 15, 2024, 11:00 am
Barbara Kondylis Waterfront Green, 301 Mare Island Way
Vallejo, CA

Richmond Juneteenth Festival
Saturday, June 22, 2024, 10 :00 am to 6:00 pm
Nicholl Park, 3230 Macdonald Ave
Richmond, CA

Annual Berkeley Juneteenth Festival
Sunday, June 16, 2024, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
Adeline @ Alcatraz, Berkeley