Saturday, June 13th, 2026
Santa Cruz Juneteenth celebrates Black Liberation and Freedom for our 35th year at Laurel Park
behind the historic London Nelson Community Center in downtown Santa Cruz, 12 - 6pm.
Our theme is: RESILIENCE
Join us for Music, Dance, Poetry from the Diaspora, nourishing soul food, craft booths,
🙏🏽 Ancestors Altar.
💪🏽 Move your body with our Moments of Movements instructors.
💃🏽 Dance to the park in our 2nd Line Sidewalk Parade starting at noon at the BLM Mural with a live brass and drum band and our Honorary Grand Marshal.
Gracing our stage this year:
The Joint Chiefs
Phreeborn & the Phreequency
Gina René and the Juneteenth Choir
Karlton Heston & the Hesperians
Down Home Blues Duo
Lee Earl
Mesha L
Tannery World Dance Youth dancers
DJ Sparkle provides the beats
MC Maiya Lanae our host
Always FREE, there's plenty of activities for children, including the sack race and the basketball clinic starting at 1:30pm.
Santa Cruz Juneteenth
In 1991, Raymond Evans, then Assistant Director of the Louden Nelson Center, introduced Juneteenth to Santa Cruz. As a Texas native, Evans was surprised by the lack of Juneteenth recognition in Santa Cruz, and aimed to bring the celebration's sense of community and pride to the city. The festivities at Louden Nelson Community Center have since been a great success, thanks to their diverse offerings. The event also honors former slave London "Louden" Nelson, a local legend known for his generosity to the school system, who has been a cultural symbol in Santa Cruz for over a century.
Juneteenth
Juneteenth marks the day the last group of enslaved African Americans learned that they were free on June 19, 1866. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective 1863, there was difficulty getting it implemented in places that were still under Confederate control. When some 200 Union troops came to Galveston Bay, Texas, and announced that the 250,000 enslaved blacks were liberated by executive decree. It was a jubilee. That day is known as Juneteenth and is African American Independence Day.
Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. You can learn more about America's second Independence day here.
