Juneteenth is such a new federal holiday that a lot of people still don’t realize it’s a holiday until they show up at the bank or a city office to conduct business and find no one there. However, it’s a federal holiday in the United States that was officially designated as such four years ago when former President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.
That act made Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established back in 1986.
Juneteenth commemorates the effective end of slavery in the US. Specifically, it marks the day in 1865 when African American slaves in Galveston, Texas finally learned they were free. That was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Here are some things to keep in mind regarding the holiday in 2025.
City of Greensboro offices will be closed on Thursday, June 19 in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.
There will be no trash or recycling collections that day. Instead, Thursday’s collections will take place on Wednesday, June 18. The White Street Landfill and Transfer Station will be closed on June 19.
However, the Greensboro Transit Agency will offer regular service on the holiday.
The Greensboro Public Library system, the Greensboro History Museum and the Greensboro Cultural Center will all be closed on June 19.
All city parks, trails, and greenways remain open. Gillespie Golf Course will operate on its normal schedule. (You can call 336-373-5850 to schedule a tee time.)
Lake Brandt, Lake Higgins and Lake Townsend will be open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
City pools and spraygrounds will be open as usual.
The following Parks and Recreation Department facilities will be closed for the holiday: administrative offices, recreation centers, Greensboro Sportsplex, Smith Active Adult Center, Trotter Active Adult Center, Xperience @ Caldcleugh, Simkins Indoor Sports Pavilion at Barber Park, and the Greensboro Youth Council.
The J. Edward Kitchen Operations Center will be closed for all in-person services on June 19. (Alternative ways to pay your water bill can be found at www.greensboro-nc.gov/PayWaterBill.)
For water and sewer emergencies that day or any day, including main breaks and sewer stoppages, or changes in the taste, odor, or color of drinking water, you can call Water Resources 24-hour Dispatch at 336-373-2033.
There will be a lot of celebrations on Thursday, June 19th and there will also be some events over the weekend.
For instance, the Greensboro History Museum will celebrate the holiday and Civic Season starting with a Greensboro Civil Rights Protests Bike Tour at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 21 at the Greensboro History Museum, at 130 Summit Ave.
Later that day, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., museum visitors will be able to see costumed interpreters portraying North Carolina journalists, activists, and public figures as part of the “Lifted Voices” Series.
According to promotional material related to the event, “The Gate City has been home to many important protest actions from the 1937-38 Carolina Theatre boycott organized by Bennett Belles to the 1960 Sit-ins and into the 21st century. The museum’s Fifth Annual Juneteenth Bike Tour will visit civil rights protest sites around Downtown Greensboro to explore how people have marched and organized against inequality.”
The price is right too – it’s free.
The guided tour is about 5 miles long. Check-in and orientation begin at 9 a.m. at the Greensboro History Museum. However, spots are limited so pre-registration is required. The deadline to register is June 20. This ride is being held in partnership with Bicycling in Greensboro (BIG), and registration links along with information about reserving a helmet or bike to use on the tour can be found at https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/?splash=https%3a%2f%2fbikegso.org%2f2025-History-Tour%2f&____isexternal=true.
Civic Season is “a time between Juneteenth and July 4 that unites our oldest federal holiday with our newest, mobilizing a movement to understand our past and shape our future.”
From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on June 21, costumed interpreters will be stationed throughout the museum as part of Lifted Voices, a free family-friendly series of “living history” events that bring to life people and stories from Greensboro’s – and North Carolina’s – history. Guests can take a tour through the museum galleries and view the NC Democracy: Eleven Elections exhibition and find living history actors portraying historic figures including suffragist Gertrude Weil, civil rights attorney J. Kenneth Lee, and Governor William R. Davie, who was a signer of the US Constitution.
During that time, tours will leave every 10-15 minutes from the museum lobby.
Of course…standard procedure.
What a HOAX
Thanks for the heads up regarding which City Departments will be working and which will be closed.
The Auto Pen made it a Federal Holiday, meaning government employees are allowed off but industry and commerce will be open, just like every other holiday.
Spraygrounds ?? You mean playgrounds. Spell check much?
It’s actually spraygounds.
Juan do you get out much. Spraygrounds have been around for many years
He is correct it is a spray ground. Water comes up from the ground for the little ones at different parks.
Just another Woke Day in America.
If we are lucky, they will stay closed and we can save loads of wasted money!
Maybe what the City needs to do is close down. They would do less damage.
It is my understanding that Juneteenth represents when slaves in Galveston Texas learned they were free when General Order No. 3 was read. The last line of the Order shows the fallacy of ending slavery without a plan to deal with millions of uneducated, ill-equipped, and untrained people into the population: “They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” Some societies in the South were formed before the War Between the States to deal with the issue of freed slaves. They had come to realize the yet unrecognize consequences of importing slave labor from Africa.
Blacks will not stop with achieving a second federal holiday recognizing their claim to fame, slavery. There will be another organized campaign of some sort. My guess is reparations will advance full throttle. Reparations have been simmering on the back burner; time to move it front and center.