Juneteenth 2024
Celebrate. Educate. Agitate. Create.
Commemorate Juneteenth with the Minnesota Humanities Center
Known as Emancipation Day and America’s second Independence Day marking the end of slavery in the United States, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 and a Minnesota state holiday in 2023. The day presents an opportunity to celebrate, educate, agitate, and create.
As we have for the past several years, the Minnesota Humanities Center has co-created a series of Juneteenth program offerings that invite audiences to learn and engage with the past and imagine and create a more just and equitable future. From school-age children to elders, corporate leaders to scholars, and across our citizenry, our in-person programming and online resources offer opportunities for learning and connection.
Contact Us
Have a question? Contact MayKao Fredericks.
Attend a Juneteenth Event
This year’s offerings will create space for thoughtful, intentional conversation across the issue of Black liberation, justice and equity, going deep to broaden our understanding, challenge romanticized notions of the past, examine through more diverse viewpoints, and imagine solutions to our present and persistent problems.
Join us and our Juneteenth Commemoration Sponsors at one of this year’s events:
Film Screening of Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery: MN African American History
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
OMG Studios, St. Paul
11:00 a.m.
THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT
Co-produced by OMG Studios and the Minnesota Humanities Center, this documentary challenges our understanding of slavery, its impact on Minnesota, and how we reconcile our past by taking viewers on a present-day journey to Ghana, to the quarters of Harriet and Dred Scott, and into conversations with current and future scholars. Featuring Akwamu Traditional Area’s King Odeneho Kwafo Akoto, III, and Queen Mother Nana Afrakoma, II, of West Africa, Ghana, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III, MN Humanities Center CEO Kevin Lindsey, St. Cloud State University American Studies Chair and Minnesota Book Award Winner Dr. Christopher Lehman, and Minnesota creative treasures T. Mychael Rambo and Thomasina Petrus, and concluding with voices from the Black Youth Healing Arts Center (BYHAC).
This year’s documentary film is brought to audiences by Ujamaa Place, St. Paul Public Library, and the City of St. Paul.
Juneteenth Breakfast featuring Bakari Sellers
Thursday, June 20, 2024
St. Paul Event Center, St. Paul
8:00 a.m.
Don’t miss this early bird pricing!
One of the premier gatherings of Minnesota’s thought leaders, creative sector and business leaders, the Minnesota Humanities Center’s Juneteenth Breakfast is an opportunity for the community to examine how together we can work toward greater justice and equity.
The 2024 Juneteenth Breakfast will feature a keynote address and community conversation with Bakari Sellers on the thesis of his new book, The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn’t and How We All Can Move Forward Now. Sellers is a CNN political analyst and lobbyist for the government of Liberia, and a former member of the South Carolina legislature. This commemoration experience includes a carefully curated breakfast, festive celebration, and a copy of Mr. Sellers’ new book.
American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services will be available at this event.
Kumbayah the Juneteenth Story
Friday, June 21, 2024
Northrop, Minneapolis
11:00 a.m.
Written by Rose McGee, Kumbayah the Juneteenth Story is a 90-minute, two-act play that takes audiences on a time-bending journey into the past, addressing the factual and traumatic time in our history when the news was deliberately withheld that the Civil War was over and Black people were no longer to be kept as slaves with states in rebellion. Spanning centuries and continents, with scenes set in early 1800s West Africa, present-day North Minneapolis, and the Turner Plantation in 1863 Texas, the play depicts tragedy but is ultimately tremendously uplifting. It is recommended for audience members aged 8 and older, and includes an age-appropriate, post-performance conversation with the cast facilitated by Dr. Amelious Whyte, UMN’s College of Liberal Arts Interim Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
This year’s play is brought to audiences by Northrop with support from UMN Office for Equity and Diversity, The Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, and Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools.
In additional to our sponsors, this activity is supported in part by an Imagine Fund Special Events Grant, an initiative of the University of Minnesota Executive Vice President and Provost, established through a generous gift from the McKnight Foundation.
American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services will be available at this event.
Explore Resources
- African American stories – books, videos and websites – housed in the Minnestoa Humanities Center’s Absent Narratives Resource Collection, sortable by grade level and content discipline
- Senses of Freedom: Exploring the Tastes, Sounds and Experiences of an African American Celebration from the National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Black and Thriving from the NAACP
- From Dr. Christopher P. Lehman, professor of Ethnic Studies at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota Book Award winner, and featured thought leader in this years’ Juneteenth documentary film:
- It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press (2024)
- Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press (2019)
Juneteenth Commemoration Sponsors
Corporate, community and philanthropic support help us bring programming to the people of Minnesota. Thank you to the following partners for their generous sponsorship of the Minnesota Humanities Center’s 2024 Juneteenth commemoration.
