Juneteenth Celebration Planned In Bolingbrook

BOLINGBROOK, IL — BBJuneteeth and the Quad County Urban League will host the sixth annual Juneteenth event in Bolingbrook on June 18.

The event will be held from noon to 10 p.m. at the Roger C. Claar Performing Arts Center, 375 W. Briarcliff Road. There will be live entertainment, a health fair, vendors, food, children's activities, a senior tent and raffles at the event, according to event organizers.

President of BBJuneteenth Lawrence Cooper said the first event was held in 2015, and BBJuneteenth became a nonprofit in 2016.

"I was given the idea from a Bolingbrook resident in 2014, and fell in love with it," he said. "[After] researching its history, I had to follow through with it."

Juneteenth is a federal holiday which commemorates the end of slavery among people of color. On June 19, 1865, the last enslaved people were freed in Galveston, Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

"It allows all people of different ethnic backgrounds to display [their] culture in food, dance and music," Cooper said. "This event celebrates our culture and success we [have] had since the end of slavery and amplifies the diversity of Bolingbrook."