New Hampshire’s Juneteenth celebration culminates with dance event

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — By the time the drumming and dancing starts Thursday, an organization that promotes African American history and culture in New Hampshire will have hosted nearly a dozen events to celebrate Juneteenth.

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire’s weekslong celebration will culminate with the rededication of the African Burying Ground Memorial Park in Portsmouth and a community dance. But those who planned the history tours, community discussions and other events to commemorate June 19, 1865 — the day Union solders brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas — also were looking ahead to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Executive Director JerriAnne Boggis said her organization and other partners want to highlight contradictions in the familiar narratives about the nation’s founding fathers.

“Although they are historically courageous, smart men, they were also human. They held people in bondage. They had children with their enslaved,” she said. “What would the story look like if the story of America was told from these Black descendants?”

Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black Americans for generations, but became more widely celebrated after former President Joe Biden designated it a federal holiday in 2021. It is recognized at least as an observance in every state, and nearly 30 states and Washington, D.C., have designated it as a permanent paid or legal holiday through legislation or executive action. But this year’s celebrations come as President Donald Trump has banned diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, in the federal government and removed content about Black American history from federal websites.

The White House said last week that plans for a Juneteenth event or proclamation this year have not been decided. During his first administration, Trump issued statements each June 19, including one that ended with “On Juneteenth 2017, we honor the countless contributions made by African Americans to our Nation and pledge to support America’s promise as the land of the free.”

The bitter national debates about Trump’s travel ban and DEI initiatives haven’t overshadowed celebrations of the end of slavery in the U.S., however, and events are happening around the country Thursday.

New Hampshire, one of the nation’s whitest states, is not among those with a permanent Juneteenth holiday, and Boggis said her hope that lawmakers would take action is waning.

“I am not so sure anymore given the political environment we’re in,” she said. “I think we’ve taken a whole bunch of steps backwards in understanding our history, civil rights and inclusion.”

Still, she hopes New Hampshire’s events and others elsewhere will make a difference.

“It’s not a divisive tool to know the truth. Knowing the truth helps us understand some of the current issues that we’re going through,” she said.

And if spreading that truth comes with a bit of fun, all the better, she said.

“When we come together, when we break bread together, we enjoy music together, we learn together, we dance together, we’re creating these bonds of community,” she said. “As much was we educate, we also want to celebrate together.”