The City of Boulder will raise the Juneteenth flag on June 14 at the Penfield Tate II Municipal Building downtown, kicking off a two-week celebration of Juneteenth 2024 events in Boulder County. The festivities, led by the NAACP Boulder County and the Executive Committee, African American Cultural Events, Boulder County (ECAACE), will include ceremonies, a nature hike, a worship service, performances, a community discussion panel and a family day in the park. The organizations have asked all municipalities in Boulder County to fly the flag from June 14 to June 22. All events are free and open to the public.
The full name of the program is “Freedom’s Path: Growing Our Next Generation.” The events not only celebrate the end of slavery but also aim to foster future activism, according to Madelyn Strong Woodley, a member of the NAACP since 1989, founder and president of the ECAACE, and a long-time social justice and police reform activist. “It is that next generation that we have to depend on,” Woodley told Boulder Reporting Lab.
She said that the second day of celebrations, June 15, which include a wilderness hike, Longmont’s raising of the Juneteenth flag and a banned books exhibit, is meant to connect young people to the legacy of fighting for freedom.
“Juneteenth is the celebration crucial to make sure that [young people] one, get involved and, two, understand their importance,” Woodley said, adding, “We have a major election before us.”
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation officially ended slavery in 1863, it took until June 1865 for those still enslaved in Texas to be finally informed they were free. The announcement on June 19 led to the celebration of Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Liberation Day, an occasion that has been celebrated by Black communities throughout the United States for over 150 years.
However, it was only officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed it into law. The State of Colorado, the City of Boulder and Boulder County followed suit in 2022. NAACP Boulder County and ECAACE have been holding an annual celebration since then, though Woodley said she began educational efforts around Juneteenth back in 2017 in partnership with Polly Christensen, a former Longmont City Councilmember. Woodley said their goal was to “make sure people knew and understood what Juneteenth was all about.”
Quoting from the Denver Public Library’s historical collection, the NAACP and ECAACE wrote in a news release, unraveling the history:
“President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official January 1, 1863, had little effect on the lives of enslaved people held in bondage in Texas due to white slaveholder resistance and the small force of Union troops expected to enforce the Executive Order. The order held no authority and slavery continued for the next two and a half years despite its official ending in other parts of the United States. It wasn’t until June 19th, 1865, when General Gordon Granger led Union soldiers to Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and enslaved people were free, that the proclamation finally made an impact. General Order Number 3 informed all Texans that all slaves were free. … The combination of General Granger’s soldiers and the surrender of General Lee in April 1865 finally overcame slaveholder obstruction in Texas.”
Other events on this year’s program include an uplifting Father’s Day church service led by Pastor James Ray at the Second Baptist Church in Boulder on June 16; an interactive panel on banned books featuring Reiland Rabaka, founder and director of the Center for African & African American Studies at CU Boulder, plus a reception with live music, on June 17; and the Longmont Juneteenth Family Celebration in Roosevelt Park on June 22.
“We are honored to make sure the level of celebration is realized and equivalent to the importance of what we’re celebrating,” Woodley said.
This year, she added, there are other victories to celebrate. The Launching of the Flags event on June 14 honors Edward Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate in the United States, appointed during Kennedy’s presidency. After being passed over for space travel more than 60 years ago, Dwight finally made his ascent into space last month. At age 90, he became the oldest person to travel to space. Dwight is also a renowned sculptor based in Denver, known for commemorating Black history.
In other celebratory news, Woodley said, a bill was signed earlier this year to redesignate part of U.S. 36 as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway. According to Woodley, this effort was spearheaded by NAACP Boulder County member Graham Hill and was supported by state Rep. Junie Joseph who represents Boulder. Once the signage for the highway is complete, Woodley hopes to host another celebration.
“There’s a lot of history right here in Colorado,” she said. “There are people that have done amazing things, and they’re unsung heroes as far as I’m concerned.”
Much of her work involves fostering education surrounding African American culture, which Woodley feels tends to be invisible in Boulder.
“It takes both black and white keys to make music,” she said. “And when they’re played together with the right synchronizations and all of the flows of harmony, they make perfect music. So as a society, if we could just take that basic concept, and create ways to make it happen, we’ll be better for it.”
