Juneteenth celebrations marking the end of slavery in United States

Man holds a flag during a Juneteenth celebration in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 19 June 2025
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Last updated:
19/06 – 21:20

USA

People across the United States marked Juneteenth on Thursday, the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Texas were told of their emancipation two years earlier.

For the Black Heritage Trail New Hampshire, a week of events culminated with the rededication of an 18th century gravesite for freed and enslaved Africans.

Its executive director, JerriAnne Boggis, explained that that the African Burying Ground in the city of Portsmouth was built over, “covered up and erased from memory”.

It was accidentally uncovered in 2003 and a memorial park was built to honour so that the city would never again forget those buried there.

“So it’s important that this time we’re gathered here during Juneteenth 2025, which is a commemoration two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was made by our then-president Lincoln,” said Boggis.

Juneteenth has been a federal holiday since 2021, but New Hampshire – one of the country’s whitest states – is not among those that have made it a legal holiday.

The organisation’s emeritus director, Rev Robert Thompson, said he could imagine the emotions of the people who found out that they had actually been free for some time.

“I imagine among the things they would have felt when they found out, that they heard about it two years late. Maybe there was some joy. There might have been some anger,” he said.

“I would have been a little ticked off I think to have known that I had been free for two years, but nobody didn’t bother to tell me.”

This year’s Juneteenth celebrations come amid President Donald Trump’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the federal government.

He’s also removed content about Black American history from federal websites.