Hannibal Square celebrates Juneteenth this weekend

This year’s Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday hosted by the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, “Remembering, Knowing and Shifting the Narrative,” will, in many ways, be celebrating resistance.

The day commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger announced the Civil War had ended and all enslaved people were free, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. And now here we are in a time of state and federal governments’ anti-DEI rampages.

The celebration and observance — held at the historic Ward Chapel — features guest speakers and conversations around, yes, diversity, equity and inclusion. Attendees can also take guided tours of the Heritage Center’s permanent collection of historic photographs and oral Southern history, and partake of refreshments.

10 a.m. Saturday, June 14; Ward Chapel AME Church, 160 S. Pennsylvania Ave., and Hannibal Square Heritage Center, 642 W. New England Ave.; Winter Park; free.

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This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2025.