Juneteenth 2025: Where to celebrate in Southern California

Leimert Park celebrates Juneteenth

Juneteenth celebrates the day in 1866 when the last slaves in Texas learned they'd been freed. Juneteenth celebrations happened across the country, including here in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES - Many Americans will celebrate Juneteenth on Thursday, June 19, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free.

Where to celebrate:

Numerous events are scheduled across Southern California in celebration, including a walk in Pacoima honoring the woman dubbed the "Grandmother of Juneteenth."

There will also be events in Altadena, Palmdale, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica and multiple other locations around Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Registration for the annual "Opal's Walk for Freedom" in Pacoima will begin at 6 a.m., and the walk will start at 7 a.m. at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary School. It will conclude at Pacoima City Hall.

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The walk coincides with a similar event in Fort Worth, Texas, in which the event's namesake, Opal Lee, is set to participate.

Lee, now 98, campaigned for decades to make Juneteenth a federal holiday -- a quest that came to fruition on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, with Lee in attendance for the signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Celebrating Juneteenth in SoCal

Good Day LA's Brooke Thomas takes us to Leimert Park for the holiday dedicated to celebrating freedom.

Lee is known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth" for the walking campaign she began when she was 89 to get the day declared a national holiday. She describes herself as "just a little old lady in tennis shoes getting in everybody's business."

The 2 1/2-mile distance honors the 2 1/2 years it took to inform the enslaved people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862, declaring all slaves free in Confederate territory as of Jan. 1, 1863.

Juneteenth marks the anniversary of Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger reading General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. It began, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."

Celebrating Juneteenth 2025

Local events will honor the federal Juneteenth holiday. However, many organizations are facing budget cuts amid DEI initiatives.

U.S. post offices will be closed and mail will not be delivered Thursday. All federal offices, schools and banks will be closed.

Following the Pacoima walk, signs will be unveiled designating the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Kewen Avenue as Nancy C. Avery Square, honoring the first Black postmaster of a "first class" post office since Reconstruction.

Avery was the postmaster of the Pacoima Post Office from 1961 until her retirement in 1984. "First class" post offices are determined based on revenue, and in 1961 the Pacoima Post Office was among the 11.6% of the locations that qualified for that designation, according to a motion by L.A. City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez that designated the intersection in Avery's honor.

Before her appointment by Postmaster General J. Edward Day, the only other Black postmasters had worked in small rural post offices, according to an obituary of Avery supplied by organizers of the event, citing information from the U.S. Postal Service.

Avery was also an active volunteer with the Democratic Party and NAACP and president of what is now the Board of Animal Services Commissioners. She died in 1992 at age 72.

In other Juneteenth events Wednesday:

• The Altadena Historical Society's fourth annual Juneteenth celebration luncheon will feature a preview of the Altadena oral history project titled, "Faces of Resilience: The African American Cultural Legacy Before & After the Eaton Canyon Fire."

The luncheon will also include the Ellen Garrison Clark Scholarship Award Ceremony, with scholarships awarded to local high school students in the spirit of Ellen Garrison Clark, the 19th century educator, abolitionist and early Civil Rights activist who spent the final two years of her life in Pasadena and is buried in Altadena.

The luncheon will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Loma Alta Park. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door and can be purchased on the society's website, altadenahistoricalsociety.org.

• A Juneteenth celebration including live music, a classic car show, food vendors and various family-friendly activities will be held at Poncitlán Square in Palmdale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and Mayor Amy Thomas Howorth will speak at Manhattan Beach's Juneteenth ceremony at Bruce's Beach Park from 10 to 11 a.m.
• A Juneteenth Celebration and Concert will be held Sunday at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach from 2 to 7 p.m.
• In honor of Juneteenth, admission at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits from 3-5 p.m.
• The Ferris wheel at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier will be illuminated in red, white and blue patterns representing the Juneteenth flag, along with green, red and gold animations inspired by the Pan-African flag. The lights will go on at sunset, approximately 8:08 p.m., and run through 12:30 a.m. The display can also be viewed online at pacpark.com/live.
• In Irvine, the Pretend City Children's Museum will celebrate Juneteenth with kids events starting at 10 a.m.