How to Create Juneteenth Traditions and Dishes at Home

The month of June has always been a celebration-central for my family. We gather for outdoor food and fun to celebrate Father’s Day, graduations, and long weekends. But Juneteenth hasn’t been part of that tradition. I didn’t grow up celebrating Juneteenth. I knew about Juneteenth from one of my cousins, but primarily in the context of skipping work as a quiet little protest. It was my daughter, two decades later, who snapped me out of my complacency. Drawn to the Juneteenth story and its rich history, she cooks strawberries with sugar each year to make homemade strawberry soda — her take on a traditional Juneteenth red drink served in celebration.

My wonderful child dreams of creating a menu and inviting people over to join us in acknowledging our history and digging into the meaning of Juneteenth. So this year, I’m going to help her plan and host a jubilant Juneteenth.

While Juneteenth dates back to 1865, it became a federal holiday only three years ago, 160 years after the last enslaved people in Texas were finally released from bondage. The Emancipation Proclamation, which deemed that all people held as slaves in the Confederate States were legally free and took effect January 1, 1863. This was two years before the Civil War ended, and so the law was not fully implemented until the war was over. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas were free. The day became known as Juneteeth and was made a state holiday in Texas in 1979. Juneteenth celebrations, which range from  parades to  cookouts, festivals, prayer and church services, and cultural activities at museums, have become more popular since then, especially after it was made a federal holiday in 2021. 

Alliah L. Agostini grew up celebrating Juneteenth in Buffalo, New York. Her grandfather, Judson Price, helped establish the Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo in 1976 to coincide with the country’s Bicentennial celebrations. It was his hope to acknowledge that freedom and independence didn’t come to Black Americans during that first Independence Day.

Agostini has written two books for young people about the holiday, The Juneteenth Story and The Juneteenth Cookbook (the latter including recipes from chef Taffy Elrod). In her books, she suggests activities for families to use to create their celebrations, like road trips to cities with big Juneteenth celebrations (like the one in Pasco, Washington, that has been around since 1978 or the three-day Memphis Juneteenth Festival that began in 1913). She also shares ideas for hosting celebrations at home, with craft projects and music playlists. Agostini worked with Elrod on suggested menus for cookouts at home.  “When I developed The Juneteenth Cookbook outline, we decided to make it very much like a cookout experience and to include foods commonly known in cookout culture  that have some historical significance to the Juneteenth holiday and African American culture in general,” she says.

The foods served on Juneteenth have symbolic meaning and a rich history with the African American community. Some ingredients, like okra, black-eyed peas, and sesame seeds, connect back to West Africa where most of our enslaved Blacks ancestors came from. Other dishes are more closely connected to the African foodways in America, like collards stewed with smoked pork, are more closely connected to the African foodways in America. Red-hued ingredients, like strawberries, watermelon, and hibiscus, play an important role on Juneteenth tables. The color is thought to signify the struggle, strength, and sacrifices that enslaved African Americans endured. Chef Taffy Elrod offers recipes like fresh kale salad dotted with bright red strawberries and a balsamic dressing to represent the colors of the Pan-African flag, and Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches made with no-churn ice cream to make it easy for kids to help. “I was excited to really make good, celebratory food,” says Elrod about the recipes she created for the book. She calls the compilation of drinks, appetizers, main dishes and sides (based on her own and Agostini’s family traditions) the ultimate cookout menu.  

This year my daughter’s and my Juneteenth will look a little different from past years. Her strawberry red drink will always be on the menu — it anchors our personal history of celebrating the holiday. And we will build out a full line up of dishes to share with our friends who come to celebrate this important day with us. I am leaning toward making slow cooker pulled pork and serving it slider-style like Elrod and Agostini do with the pulled chicken in the book. Potato salad will be on the table because my mother, like Agostini’s grandmother did for her, taught me her secrets (sprinkling vinegar on the potatoes while they're still hot was one of her gems). We’ll do a riff on my grandmother’s peach cobbler, studding it with fresh sweet cherries for more red on the table. We’ll create a Juneteenth inspired playlist we both enjoy (no small feat!) while we prep together to make the delicious dishes that will grace our table, and create a new celebration for our family based in tradition.