MSU Juneteenth Celebration

This year marks the 6th annual Juneteenth Commemorative Celebration at Michigan State University! This year’s theme, Beyond Freedom: Building Futures, Protecting Our Past and Activating Change, aims to celebrate and recognize the contributions of past and contemporary artists, scientists and advocates who work tirelessly to center Black excellence in the American fabric. The Juneteenth events at MSU will include components focused on voting, entrepreneurship and storytelling. The event is open to all.

About Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas were told they were free, two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1863. A century and a half later, Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, but it’s not taught in schools or widely known. Michigan State University hosts Juneteenth as an annual celebration that recognizes the diverse contributions of African Americans to the United States.

2026 Event Details

Public parking is limited to Pay by Plate locations. Find additional parking ramp details under each event.

Monday, June 15 – Juneteenth Symposium
Monday, June 15, from 5-8 p.m. (doors open at 4:30 p.m.)
MSU Main Library
366 W Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI 48824

The MSU Juneteenth Symposium brings together local leaders and grassroots activists for a day of reflection and collective action. Rooted in the spirit of freedom and community empowerment, the program highlights the ongoing work of civic engagement and volunteerism as vital tools for advancing justice and strengthening our communities.

Registration
Space is limited to 100 people. Registration is encouraged. Reserve your spot online.

Speaker Information
Speaker biographies and photos are available online.

Panel Discussion
The event will begin with a panel conversation featuring local leaders and organizers who are actively shaping social change across the region. Panelists will share their experiences in advocacy, community organizing, and public service while exploring the importance of civic participation, grassroots leadership, and sustained volunteer engagement in addressing today’s most pressing social challenges.

Workshops
Following the panel discussion, participants will have the opportunity to engage in a series of interactive workshops designed to deepen community knowledge. The workshops include:
- Piecing the Past: Quilts, Stories, and the Legacy of Juneteenth: This hands-on workshop explores quilting as a powerful form of storytelling. Guided by Liv Furman, participants will engage in conversation about basic quilting techniques while reflecting on themes of freedom, resilience, and cultural memory. Attendees will have the opportunity to view quilts from the MSU Museum Quilt Collection. Location: MSU Green Room (4th Floor West)
- Recipes of Resistance: Food, Culture, and Community Memory: This dynamic panel brings together local Lansing entrepreneurs to explore how cuisine carries culture, history, and resistance. The discussion will highlight food as a vessel for storytelling, identity, and community connection. Panelists will share personal journeys, culinary traditions, and the ways their work preserves and reimagines cultural memory through food. Location: W201N, Beaumont West Instruction Room (2nd Floor West)
- Tracing Our Roots: Genealogy, Archives, and Family Histories: Genealogy is more than names and dates; it’s understanding the world that our Ancestors inhabited. Led by Shay Sandoval-Flores, this workshop will explore the importance of genealogical work, introduce archival tools for research and how you can begin to collect you family’s history. Location: W221, Red Cedar West Instruction Room (2nd Floor West)
- Herbal Teas and Histories: An Empowering Tea Make-and-Take Event: Are you trying to get more in touch with your cultural roots? Want to enhance your routine with some added nutrition, but don't know where to start? Teas could be the answer! Join speaker Kelsi Briana Smith for a hands-on and informative tea making session to discuss the stories, benefits, and potential of the plants growing right outside your door. Everyone in attendance will have the opportunity to configure their own tea blend to brew at their leisure. Location: W323, 3-W Instruction Room (3rd Floor West)
- The Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan: A Faith-based Approach to Reparations: The Justice League of Greater Lansing, Michigan, exists to repair the breach caused by the historical damage of slavery and its aftermath. In the spirit of repentance for the sin of racism, we seek to build relationships and facilitate reparations between houses of worship and collaborative partners to increase wealth equity for African Americans in the Greater Lansing Area. Location: W325, Beal Instruction Room (3rd Floor West)
MSU Library maps may help you navigate to the workshop rooms. They can be found on the MSU Libraries website.

Food will be provided. Additional details regarding the food are forthcoming.

Parking

Pay by Plate Parking: Lots 62, 103/Ramp 6
Tuesday, June 16 – Black Wall Street Vendor Fair

Tuesday, June 16
MSU Multicultural Center
535 N Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824

The event will feature our annual vendor fair. It also includes performances by the Flint Double Dutch Group, a 360 Photo Booth, the WKAR Family Corner, music, and much more!

Parking
Pay by Plate Parking will be available in Lots 39, 441, 51/Ramp 1, and 79.

Vendor Fair Application
Please note that the vendor application for this event is now closed.
Wednesday, June 17 - MSU Libraries Book Talk Series Finale

Wednesday, June 17, 6:15 p.m.
WKAR (Studio B)
404 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI 48824

African American Women Scholars on Race, Racism, and Living Black in America
MSU professor Dr. LeConté Dill will talk about her newest book, Soul Survivors. The event will be hosted by poet and fiction writer Lisa Bond-Brewer. Soul Survivors is a collection of persona poems where three Black girl storytellers take the reader along journeys through Oakland, Atlanta, and Brooklyn, respectively. The book is informed by 15 years of the author’s community-engaged research in and with urban neighborhoods and the young people and organizations there.

Speaker Biography
Dr. LeConté Dill is a storyteller, artist, educator, and scholar. She is the Director of Graduate Studies and an Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. LeConté’s work is critically informed by years of working in partnership with youth-serving, community- and arts-based organizations across the U.S. and South Africa. In her research, teaching, art, and advocacy, she aims to listen to and show up for Black girls, in particular, and is committed to documenting their strategies of wellness, healing, and resistance. Soul Survivors is her debut book.

Registration
Registration for this event is available online.

Parking
Parking is available adjacent to the South Lobby Entrance at 1149 Red Cedar Road, East Lansing, MI 48824 (Lot #52 or Trowbridge Ramp #5).

Sponsors
MSU Libraries, WKAR, MSU Juneteenth Planning Committee, African American and Africa Studies (AAAS)

For more information, visit the MSU Libraries website.
Thursday, June 18 – OurSpace 517 Juneteenth Wellness Seminar

Thursday, June 18
Cadillac Room
1115 S. Washington, Ave, Lansing, MI 48910

Healthy People Creating Healthy Communities
Hosted by OurSpace 517, this seminar will explore the eight dimensions of wellness including physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, financial, and environmental wellness through engaging panels and keynote conversations. Featuring leaders from wellness and nutrition, entrepreneurship, financial institutions, and education, this experience is designed to provide practical tools for personal growth and stronger communities.
Friday, June 19 – Juneteenth Youth Summit

Friday, June 19
MSU Multicultural Center
535 N Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824

We are pleased to welcome K–12 students to celebrate Juneteenth through learning, creativity, and community connection. During the Youth Summit, students will be welcomed with community remarks, an introduction to the history and significance of Juneteenth, and engage in experiences led by campus and community partners. Through performance, storytelling, and youth-centered activities, participants will explore Juneteenth as a living legacy connecting the past, present, and future.

Registration
For registration, please contact Amir Franklin, within the Office of Social Science via email at frank294@msu.edu.

How to participate

Volunteer:

The committee is looking for volunteers for the week to help with set-up, check-in, traffic flow, take-down and other activities. Sign up today to volunteer!

Sign up for the Black Wall Street Vendor Fair:

Please note that the vendor application for this event is now closed. Thank you to everyone for your interest!

Become a sponsor:

Visionary Sponsor – $1,000 includes name on website.
Legacy Sponsor – $1,500 includes name on website and Juneteenth educational program.
Freedom Sponsor – $2,000 includes names on the website and the Juneteenth celebration.

Please complete the sponsorship form online. You may copy and paste this link on your browser to access the form: msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3kHej6sYXaXS8PI.

Community events

Wiki

Juneteenth - On June 19, 1865, two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and a couple of months after the end of the Civil War, newly posted Major General Gordon Granger issued orders to free the over 250,000 African American slaves in Galveston, Texas, who had not yet been informed of the new law. Juneteenth is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of the enslavement of African Americans and Black people in the United States.

Although, Juneteenth has been celebrated since the late 1800s, it was not federally recognized as a national holiday until June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed a bill officially designating June 19 as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America.

Afrofuturism - The cultural aesthetic, philosophy and movement that explores the intersection of the African/Black diaspora with the alternative visions and imaginations of Black liberation.

African/Black diaspora - The descendants and global community of Black West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Black National Anthem - 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' (poetry and lyrics) by James Weldon Johnson

Black Wall Street - Also known as the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where in the early 20th century African Americans created a self-sufficient prosperous business district that was destroyed in 1921 due to racial violence.

Green Book -The Green Book was a travel guidebook specifically designed for African American travelers during the era of racial segregation in the United States. View the MSU Green Book.

Harlem Renaissance - The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s.

Idlewild - Idlewild, or the "Black Eden of Michigan," was one of the few resorts in the country where African Americans could safely vacation from 1912 through the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Freedom - the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without restraint.

Liberation - securing equitable, social, economic and judicial rights.

Sponsors and volunteers

We thank our many sponsors and volunteers for contributing to support the MSU Juneteenth Celebration:

Planning Committee Members

Yolanda Anderson, Ph.D., College of Engineering
Reyna Atkinson, MSU Student
Terence Brown, Office of Admissions
Dajia Burke, Recreational Sports and Fitness Services
Julian Chambliss, Ph.D, College of Arts and Letters
Karma Crandell, MSU Student
Melissa Del Rio, Graduate School
Freddie DeRamus, University Advising
Gennell Dorty, Career Services Network
Amanda Flores, Ph.D., College of Education
Amir Franklin, College of Social Science
Tonya Fountain, Prevention, Outreach and Education
Erik Ponder, University Libraries
Ted Ransaw, College of Education
Cece Sumpter, Undergraduate Education
Marquis Taylor, Broad College of Business
Debra Thorton, Undergraduate Education
Tomika Timmons, Learning and Assessment Center
Faye Watson, FRIB
Scot Wright, Broad College of Business

IEI support staff

Lauren Woodworth, Fiscal and Human Resources Officer, Office for Inclusive Excellence and Impact
Florensio Hernandez, Program Manager, Office for Inclusive Excellence and Impact
Lisa Fuentes, Staff Assistant, Office for Inclusive Excellence and Impact
Henry Mochida, Inclusion Communications Manager II, Office for Inclusive Excellence and Impact and University Communications
Leah Ball, Assistant Director of Communications and Digital Engagement, Office of the Provost

Communications

A promotional kit with materials will be made available soon.

Communications contact: mochidah@msu.edu