WILMINGTON, N.C.— Wilmington’s Juneteenth celebrations are continuing several days past the holiday's observance, with a focus on unity and education.

The Juneteenth Committee of Wilmington celebrations started on June 11, with a festival at the MLK Center on June 17. The committee's final event this year will be on June 25.

What You Need To Know

  • Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans
  • The U.S. Army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Texas were free by executive decree 
  • The Juneteenth Committee of Wilmington plans to involve more events to make the celebration even bigger next year
  • The committee's final event this year will be on June 25

In 2004, Marsha Graham-Ali became a chairperson of the Juneteenth Committee in Wilmington. Since working on the committee, she says their focus is unity. 

“The celebration of families. It doesn’t matter what race you are. We want to bring everybody together, and celebrate unity and family, because that’s what Juneteenth is really all about. Our goal is emancipating, empowering and energizing our communities through celebrating our history,” Graham-Ali said. 

The Juneteenth Committee has over a week of activities planned every year, so the community can enjoy the remembrance of Juneteenth. 

“History is serious, but you can also have fun with history. So this is really a celebration. We’re going to have music and poetry, and we, as you can see, the ladies are setting up. So this is really bringing everything together to celebrate what Juneteenth was all about,” Graham-Ali said. 

The committee commemorates the holiday just as it was first celebrated on June 19, 1865, when the last group of 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were freed by executive decree. 

“Because when they were told that they were free, ended up starting the Juneteenth celebration, and they did it like with picnics and having different food and games and things like that, so that people could come and enjoy themselves,” Graham-Ali said. 

There is a big emphasis on unity and honoring ancestors. 

“I said, ‘come out and celebrate and have a good time with the music, food vendors.’ You can buy what you want to see here, and the purpose is to honestly just celebrate our ancestors and what they what they went through, you know, to come to this point. So Juneteenth is called Juneteenth Festival celebration, and it’s also always about family unity,” Graham-Ali said. 

Graham-Ali also says a big part of the celebrations is the education aspect each event has. 

“Educated in this history. There’s so many things that we don’t know. I know I’m one of them, but I’m learning over and over. And it’s not just, I’m not talking about just Black history, which is really important. So, you know, we want our children to come up to know about it. But history in general, because I don’t know how much of it is being taught in school. I know that when I was in school, we didn’t know anything about Black people doing anything,” Graham-Ali said. 

Along with education, the committee wants to involve their youth as much as possible. 

“Just enjoy, you know, Juneteenth. And while they’re doing it, they’re learning,” Graham-Ali said. 

Graham-Ali says they plan to bring more to the Juneteenth Festival celebration. Next year they have plans to hold an event specifically to get more youth to get involved.