Savoring freedom: How food plays a part in Juneteenth celebrations
As communities prepare to celebrate Juneteenth at events across the county this month, Black San Diegans share what foods they eat to honor the holiday
Growing up as part of the Cooper family in San Diego, celebrating Juneteenth Day was a huge part of 26-year-old Maliya Jones’ upbringing.
Many of her non-Black friends sometimes questioned why she made a big deal about a holiday they had otherwise never heard of.
“They were like, 'That's crazy, because you always talk about Juneteenth, you always talk about your family,” Jones said.
But for years before Juneteenth had been recognized as a holiday by the federal or California state government, Jones’ family had organized a large annual festival to celebrate the abolition of slavery.
It was more than 50 years ago when her grandparents, Sidney and Thelma Cooper, first started hosting Juneteenth celebrations in San Diego, initially as a small event among family and friends.
Sidney, who was lovingly known as the “Mayor of Imperial Avenue” had wanted to bring the tradition he celebrated at home in Oklahoma with him to San Diego to foster community connections.
“Sidney Cooper brought awareness of Juneteenth to San Diego and pioneered celebrations decades before its federal recognition,” Jones said of her grandfather. “He fostered unity among the Southeast San Diego community by establishing internal and external relationships in the community.”
More than five decades later, the Juneteenth festival has grown into a large annual festival drawing in musical performers, dancers, vendors and guests from throughout the region.
Although she now lives in Las Vegas, working as a health program specialist, Jones serves as an event coordinator for the Cooper Family Foundation and its annual Juneteenth celebration. Her trips home to celebrate the holidays with her community are often marked by sharing the foods she associates with the holiday.
“Black eyed peas, pulled pork, cornbread,” Jones said, “things like that just show the resilience of the black people and what they faced.”
History of Juneteenth
Also known as Jubilee Day or Liberation Day, Juneteenth — a portmanteau of the words “June” and “nineteenth” — celebrates the end of slavery in the United States and is considered the oldest observed African American holiday.
Despite the Emancipation Proclamation to abolish slavery being issued in 1862 and the Civil War ending in April 1865, news of slavery’s end was delayed in its spread to communities across the country. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the proclamation that the state’s 250,000 enslaved people were freed by executive decree, sparking the celebration that led to the national holiday.
For more than a century, Juneteenth was primarily celebrated by Black families and communities, like the celebration held each year in San Diego by the Cooper Family Foundation, but it started gaining more recognition in the 21st Century.
Since 2017, California has observed Juneteenth as a state holiday, and President Joe Biden signed it into law in 2021, making it a federal holiday. Last year, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously to make the celebration a paid, annual holiday for city workers.
Juneteenth foods
In the more than 150 years since Juneteenth was first celebrated, certain foods have become associated with celebration of the holiday.
Black food writer and historian Michael Twitty said that often families will prepare red foods — the color representing the blood shed in slavery — including red punch or soda, watermelon, red velvet cake and reddish brown baked beans.
But Twitty — who is teaching an Atlas Obscura course on the culinary journey from West and Central Africa to the American South — said red also shows the connections between the freed slaves who first celebrated Juneteenth in 1865 and the Yoruba and Congo communities.
“There were people in Texas who came over on the slave ship as late as the 1830s,” Twitty said. He added that red is the color of Aṣẹ, the Yoruba philosophy behind the power to make things happen and produce change.
Other foods can include barbecue and dishes thought to bring good luck, such as collard greens and black eyed peas, both of which are also frequently served in Black families to celebrate the New Year.
But just as there is not one experience or viewpoint that encompasses every Black American, there is no one right way to celebrate Jubilee Day.
Back in New Orleans, Chef Quinnton Austin and his community had no shortage of events to celebrate throughout the year.
There were the Super Sunday parades and Mardi Gras during the Carnival season, holidays with Caribbean and Haitian influence, and second-lines, parades led by jazz musicians to celebrate weddings and mourn deaths in the community. One thing all those events have in common is the inclusion of flavorful dishes.
“New Orleans is a majority Black city, so we didn't have to try hard to show our Blackness,” Austin said.
Even when there aren’t holidays or events to celebrate, the city has plenty of foods outside the stereotypical beignets and gumbo widely available to enjoy as major cultural touchstones for New Orleans.
“There's a snowball stand on every other corner, there's the candy lady on every other corner, there's the candy truck,” Austin said of his old neighborhood. “You could get taffy, proper pecan candy, pralines, ooey gooey cake, pecan pies, you can get all that stuff.”
But after moving out to San Diego from New Orleans in 2018, Austin saw how the community gathered in celebration of Juneteenth.
Now, he honors the holiday each year by serving the dishes his customers crave at both of his restaurants, Louisiana Purchase in North Park and Q & A Restaurant & Oyster Bar in Oceanside.
“I feel like if they come here, it's the catfish, the fried chicken and this year, I might do a boil,” Austin said. “I feel like that's the typical foods that a lot of people gravitate toward for Juneteenth.”
As a kid in Cincinnati, Loren Cobbs wasn’t raised with the tradition of Juneteenth, but as a teenager she started observing the holiday after making friends with people from the South who grew up celebrating it.
After founding SD Melanin in 2017 to curate experiences to build community for professionals of color, Cobbs’ organization started hosting events in honor of Juneteenth. What started as a series of smaller events and dinners has grown into the Kinfolk Fest, which welcomes thousands of attendees to celebrate Juneteenth at Waterfront Park each year.
African drummers and dancers perform during the SD Melanin Juneteenth Family Dinner at Suckerfree Southern Kitchen in downtown San Diego on June 19, 2019. Video by Lauren J. Mapp
Since Juneteenth wasn’t celebrated in her family, Cobbs said she associates the foods her family ate at other family events with the holiday.
“Soul food or barbecue is the type of food I would expect at any Black American celebration,” she said. “There's going to be somebody on the grill, unless it's cold outside, there's going to be someone who makes mac and cheese, somebody's going to make potato salad, somebody's going to make baked beans, but baked beans with the meat, the onions, the brown or red beans, or some kind of sweet component, somebody's going to make a pound cake.
No matter what cultural background someone comes from or how they choose to celebrate the holiday, Twitty said it’s most important that Juneteenth be celebrated by all Americans. Instead of viewing it solely as a Black holiday, he said it should be a national, teachable moment to show the interconnectedness of those from all ethnicities.
“There are a lot of people who think that whatever happened to Black people just happened to Black people and had no effect on Asian Americans, European immigrants, Indigenous people and the story of immigrants from Mexico,” Twitty said.
“But our history is connected to all of those histories, especially the exploitation of us in terms of labor and culture.”
Below is a list of Juneteenth events that will be hosted in San Diego County over the next two weeks. If I missed one that you’d like me to add to the list, feel free to email it to me at lauren@offthemapp.com.
Juneteenth 2024 Events List
North San Diego County NAACP Annual Juneteenth Multicultural Celebration
When: Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m to 5 p.m.
Where: Civic Center (300 North Coast Highway, Oceanside)
Cost: Free
Guests at this year’s North San Diego County NAACP Annual Juneteenth Multicultural Celebration will enjoy shopping at a vendor marketplace and food vendors, as well as free health screenings and health awareness booths.
Kids can enjoy themselves at the Youth Zone, which will include games, face painting, crafts and other activities. There will also be live entertainment hosted throughout the day featuring professional and local performers, including singer-songwriter J. Pierre and saxophonist J. Boykin.
Juneteenth Healing the Community Festival
When: Saturday, June 15, 11 a.m to 6:30 p.m.
Where: Memorial Park (2975 Ocean View Blvd, San Diego)
Cost: Free
Held each year by the Cooper Family Foundation, the annual Juneteenth Healing the Community Festival was originally started by family patriarch Sidney Cooper Sr. and matriarch Thelma Cooper more than 50 years ago.
The free event in Memorial Park includes educational programming, live music, a Black history wall, vendors and a free kid zone with carnival rides. While meals and snacks can be purchased from food trucks during the festival, the Cooper Family also distributes free food so all attendees can participate in all aspects of the holiday.
Kinfolk Fest (21+ only event)
When: Saturday, June 15, 12-9 p.m.
Where: Waterfront Park (1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego)
Cost: $35 (General Admission); $100 (VIP Hosted Bar)
Kinfolk Fest will be hosted in Waterfront Park by SD Melanin, which was founded in 2017 to enhance the cultural ecosystem for professionals of color. The organization’s annual event includes live music, DJ sets and art installations, as well as vendors selling food, beverages and retail items.
The day will also include fitness and wellness activities led by Faatima Harley of Chocolate Yoga Destinations, Latoya McKelvin of Movement Matters Collective and Coach J from Elevation Fitness.
VIP hosted bar tickets include admission to a covered VIP area, Uncle Nearest Whiskey hosted bar, expedited entry, luxury restrooms, seating, VIP cash bar for all other spirits and spots for VIP Photo Ops.
No outside food or drinks are allowed at the venue, but guests can bring blankets or sheets to sit on.
Tickets can be purchased directly from SD Melanin.
Third Annual La Mesa Juneteenth & Friends
When: Sunday, June 16, 12-4 p.m.
Where: MacArthur Park (4975 Memorial Dr., La Mesa)
Cost: Free
Established in 2022, the La Mesa Juneteenth festival was created as a response to social justice protests that impacted the community in 2020.
This year’s La Mesa Juneteenth & Friends festival will include performances by the MLK Jr. Community Choir, African drummers, spoken word artists and other musical guests. There will also be a Kidzone available with bounce houses, sport games, arts and crafts, face painting and more.
More information about the free event and its history is available at lamesajuneteenth.org.
Fourth Annual Juneteenth Charity Golf Tournament
When: Monday, June 17, 9:45 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: Lomas Santa Fe Country Club (1505 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach)
Cost: Starting at $100
The Fourth Annual Juneteenth Charity Golf Tournament will raise money to benefit two youth programs, the Mandate Project Impact and Walk With Me Impact.
Through Mandate Project Impact, youth and young adult interns train in multiple disciplines needed for careers in music, video and radio production. Walk With Me Impact is a program designed to provide “prevention curriculum for youth at the highest risk for adverse childhood experiences.”
Tickets start at $100 for dinner only guests. While tickets for individual golfers and foursomes are currently sold out, sponsorship packages that include spots for golfers are still available online. More information regarding the tournament and registration can be found online.
Civil Rights Forum
When: Thursday, June 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Where: California Western School of Law (225 Cedar Street, San Diego)
Cost: $25 (General Admission); $20 (Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association Members); free for students
The Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association is hosting an event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in honor of Juneteenth.
The Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association is a nonprofit organization that aims to advance the political, economic, educational, social, legislative and legal interests of the Black community in San Diego County.
The Association’s Juneteenth event will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. with dinner and wine, followed by a presentation featuring keynote speaker, Mary Scott Knoll M.Ed., J.D., Executive Director of The Fair Housing Council of San Diego.
Tickets are available for purchase on Eventbrite.
Juneteenth at Chollas Lake
When: Saturday, June 22, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Where: Chollas Park Gloria’s Mesa Amphitheater (6050 College Grove Drive, San Diego)
Cost: Free
A day of fun and learning the history of Juneteenth will be hosted at the Gloria’s Mesa Amphitheater by a collaborative group that includes the Chollas Lake Parks and Recreation Council, Rolando Park Community Council, Community Actors Theatre and Key56 Radio.
The event will include various vendors, games and free entertainment for all ages, including an arts and crafts table for children.