On this year’s Juneteenth celebration on Martha’s Vineyard, weeks before the 250th anniversary of American independence, history looms large.
Juneteenth, or June 19, was declared a federal holiday in 2021. It marks the day when Union troops marched into Texas to force the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in 1865, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and almost 100 years after the founding of the United States.
But for Kyle Williams, an activist and educator on anti-racist conversation and action, the more significant narrative is not the history of the country’s 250 years but where the country has ended up, 250 years after its founding.
“The biggest thing that stays on my mind is, when are enough people going to make a choice to do what’s necessary to make this country great, for once. It’s the 250th anniversary of white supremacy in this country. I would love to celebrate the first anniversary of white supremacy being gone,” he said.
Mr. Williams will join Reginald M. Browne of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission for a panel discussion on Friday in honor of Juneteenth. The event is hosted by the Vineyard Gazette and titled Freedom at 250: From Revolution to Juneteenth — Who Was America For?
The panel will accompany a weekend of conversation, culture and celebration to highlight contemporary Black innovators and artists, reflect on history and consider the present state of the union. The Vineyard Gazette Media Group has produced a free program guide with a calendar of activities taking place around the Island.
Juneteenth on the Vineyard has evolved in the past five years to become a full weekend of events hosted by multiple organizations, said Kahina Van Dyke, founder of the Juneteenth Jubilee. In 2021, the jubilee was hosted on her porch but quickly grew beyond it.
“Oak Bluffs was founded by Methodists who were abolitionists,” said Ms. Van Dyke. “There’s no better place to celebrate Juneteenth, in my mind, maybe besides Texas.”
The jubilee festival on Saturday takes place at the Tabernacle and will include a series of discussions with voting rights activists, financial planners and even astronauts.
“We want to celebrate trailblazers and people who have done remarkable things,” said Ms. Van Dyke. “We want to normalize going to the stars.”
The jubilee is also hosting Cebo Campbell, the author of Sky Full of Elephants, a dystopian novel about race, America and identity. Mr. Cambell will be in conversation with Charley Palmer, an artist and summer resident.
The jubilee ends with music. Students from the Berklee School of Music will perform classical and jazz pieces from the African American point of view, sponsored and curated from the Africana studies department of the school.
Crafts and concerts will accompany Saturday’s schedule, and the Center of Knowhere gallery on Circuit avenue will open an exhibit on Friday entitled Held in Tension, which reflects on the space between Juneteenth and July 4.
“The exhibition explores how histories are carried, contested and reshaped through material, memory, labor and cultural inheritance,” according to a statement from Knowhere Art Gallery. The exhibit features five artists working in five different mediums, each contributing to a conversation about how history shapes the present.
One of the artists, Nnaemeka Ekwelum, will exhibit woven works that use the Juneteenth flag colors, “underscor[ing] the ongoing significance of freedom, remembrance, and collective cultural memory,” according to the statement.
On Sunday, there will be a Juneteenth church service at the Union Chapel, a gospel brunch at the Edgartown Yacht Club and the Taste of Juneteenth at the Portuguese-American Club, sponsored by the NAACP of Martha’s Vineyard
The Taste of Juneteenth will feature food from Black-owned restaurants and a keynote speech by Dr. Jessica Harris, author of High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. The event also raises money for the NAACP’s scholarships.
“That’s what this event is about, fellowship, breaking bread with one another,” said the MV NAACP branch president Shawn Ramoutar.
An important part of the weekend is educating people about the holiday’s historical relevance: what it’s about, how it came to be and why it’s more than just a Black holiday, said Mr. Ramoutar.
“It’s a day about freedom. It’s about addressing the mistakes made in the making of this country. Slavery was one of those mistakes,” he said.
Mr. Williams agreed, but said there is a dichotomy in celebrating Juneteenth.
“It’s a celebration of forced final compliance,” he said. “Yes, we should always celebrate freedom and progress in this country. But…let’s celebrate the next step, and the next step and the next.”
See vineyardgazette.com/juneteenth.
This article appears in June 19, 2026.
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1st, 1863 during the dark days of the Civil War, when President Lincoln finally felt he had the support needed to take this action. Lincoln, the first Republican President, a political party founded largely on the goal of abolishing slavery, ultimately lost his life, along with hundreds of thousands of Americans, in achieving this initial goal. The Emancipation Proclamation was later followed up by 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The Union Army’s couldn’t fully reach the extremities of the nation until after the Civil War ended in April of 1865. The Civil War was by far the deadliest war in our nation’s history, costing roughly 360,000 Union soldiers and 260,000 Confederate soldiers lives, with some recent estimates as high as 750,000 total casualties. By contrast WW2 cost the lives of slightly more than 400,000 Americans.