Celebrating Juneteenth Around Boston
Commemorate 160 years of the holiday with free museum entry, parades, and neighborhood celebrations
Photo by Malik Evren/iStock
Celebrating Juneteenth Around Boston
Commemorate 160 years of the holiday with free museum entry, parades, and neighborhood celebrations
Juneteenth is a federal holiday honoring the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in the United States. Officially recognized in 2021 by President Joe Biden, the holiday celebrates the day 160 years ago when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Tex., with the news that the Civil War, and slavery, had ended—more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. More than 250,000 people were freed, and the day became known as Freedom Day, or Juneteenth.
Boston commemorates Juneteenth annually with a mix of fun and informative events celebrating Black history and culture. Here are some can’t-miss happenings so you can make the most of the holiday.
Welcome the holiday with a flag-raising ceremony by the city of Boston. Boston officially observes Juneteenth through an annual commemoration of the distinctive red, white, and blue flag with a singular star in its center—representing those freed in Texas. The first version of the Juneteenth flag was displayed in 1997 in the historic John Eliot Square District in Roxbury, with a revised version following in 2000.
The Faculty & Staff of Color Alliance, in collaboration with the BU Women of Color Circle, invites all faculty and staff to celebrate Juneteenth at the School of Law. Paula Austin, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of history and of African American and Black diaspora studies, will headline the event. This free event will also have music, games, food, and drinks.
In honor of Juneteenth, admission to the MFA is free for all Massachusetts residents (although BU undergrad and graduate students can always get in free with their Terrier Card). Explore the artwork of the late Roxbury native, and BU College of Fine Arts professor, John Wilson in the Witnessing Humanity exhibition. Over his 60-year career, Wilson portrayed the realities of racial prejudice, social injustice, and disenfranchisement in his artwork, and is probably most well-known for his sculpture titled Eternal Presence, colloquially known as “Big Head.” While you’re there, take a free guided tour, craft your own artistic masterpiece, or try a life-size chess set. Throughout the day, you’ll see interactive performances from local artists, ranging from spoken word and Black history poetry readings to shows from Northeastern University’s step dance team to choral renditions by Boston Arts Academy’s Spirituals Ensemble. End your evening with a free screening of Paint Me a Road Out of Here—a documentary exploring the whitewashed history of Faith Ringgold’s For the Woman’s House painting—presented by the Roxbury International Film Festival.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is honoring Juneteenth with a free day of performances, conversations, and activities celebrating Boston-based Black artists and community leaders. Craft a collage, test your knowledge of social justice movements for the chance to win a prize, and check out the public art collections of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Enjoy beats from a DJ throughout the celebration, and close out the day with a panel of local artists reflecting on the legacy of Boston’s Black muralists.
We Create the World is an annual celebration of Juneteenth by the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Boston Ujima Project, an organization dedicated to building sustainable economic infrastructure within communities of color in Boston. In addition to free admission to the ICA, this year’s celebration will feature live music, film screenings, exhibitions, and other activities that celebrate Black culture. Tickets are required for this event; you can register here starting Wednesday, June 18.
Explore Boston’s role in the fight to end slavery, along the Black Heritage Trail with Hub Town Tours. This 2.5-hour walking tour, led by a knowledgeable guide in period costume, travels from the Boston Common to the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial, and closely assesses the years leading up to the Civil War. Along the way, you’ll explore sites from the Underground Railroad, homes of the “Boston Brahmins”—the city’s historic educated elite—and abolitionist landmarks like the African Meeting House. Tickets are $35 and spots fill up quickly, so be sure to register here.
Celebrate Juneteenth across the Charles River with the Cambridge Juneteenth Committee’s fourth annual parade and celebration. Start the day with live music and singing before following the parade to Riverside Press Park. This family-friendly affair will have free food, food trucks, live performances, DJs, and a vendor market. Though the event is free and tickets aren’t required, those who bring a printed ticket will receive a limited-time gift.
Calling all ranchers for this Freedom Frontier–themed block party, celebrating the legacy of Black cowboys and cowgirls. Put on your best cowboy boots and enjoy line dancing, live music, free food, and family-friendly games and activities. Consider bringing clothes you don’t mind getting dirty: there will be a waterslide, and for those brave enough, a bucking mechanical bull.
Honor the lives of those once enslaved at the historic Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury, believed to be one of only two still-standing slave quarters in the northeastern United States. The Shirley-Eustis House, in partnership with BlackBrownBoston, For Black Girls, and the City of Boston Arts and Culture department, will commemorate Juneteenth at the third annual Freedom Cookout. The celebration will start with a free tour of Royal Governor William Shirley’s estate. On the lower lawn of the estate will be a free cookout, with arts and crafts, lawn games, board games, a sensory garden for kids, live entertainment, a caricature artist, a free book fair, and a Black vendors market. In the afternoon, a ceremony will be held on the upper lawn to honor the individuals formerly enslaved at the Shirley-Eustis House.
Enjoy a ferry ride to Georges Island, one of the 34 islands and peninsulas that make up the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. For Juneteenth, the National Park Service is hosting a free celebration on Georges Island with live music performances, historical tours, and explorations of Boston’s Black history. While events on Georges Island are free, visitors must purchase ferry tickets. Students ride for $23 and can purchase tickets here.
For 15 years, the Boston Juneteenth Committee has honored the emancipation of enslaved African Americans with a day of reflection, music, and community in historic Roxbury. This year, with the help of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA)—a Roxbury-based organization dedicated to platforming underrepresented artists of the African diaspora across New England—celebrations will kick off at the Roxbury Heritage State Park with a flag raising by Ben Haith, the designer of the original Juneteenth flag, live drumming, 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment reenactors, and an appearance from Miss Juneteenth. The parade will depart soon after and follow a route to the NCAAA office, where there will be food and artisan vendors, activities, and live entertainment.
Snack on treats and beverages at Trident Booksellers & Cafe while enjoying a screening of Hidden Figures, a movie inspired by the true lives of three Black women at NASA. The film tells the story of mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, whose essential yet often unrecognized work was critical to the 20th-century Space Race. Seating for the free screening will be first come, first served. Food and beverages on the café’s menu will be available for purchase.
Pack up your picnic blanket and celebrate Juneteenth at Franklin Park, hosted by the city of Boston. Indulge in barbecue and dance the night away at the grassy Shattuck Picnic Grove. Bring friends and family, or go solo—it’ll be a huge community celebration.
As a site of colonial enslavement, activism, and President George Washington’s first long-term headquarters during the American Revolution, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters will honor a long history of freedom at its fourth annual celebration of Juneteenth. Come for interactive activities rooted deeply in Black history, catered refreshments, poetry readings, and live music from a drumline and a DJ.
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