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CINCINNATI — Elected leaders and community organizers gathered outside Hamilton County Courthouse on Thursday morning to raise the Juneteenth flag.

The flag-raising ceremony comes before a weekend of events celebrating the holiday, which is also known as Emancipation Day.

The Hamilton County Commissioners have raised the white, blue and red flag — featuring a five-point star, a bursting star and an arc — every year since 2021 to mark the end of slavery in the United States.

Cincinnati planned to hold a similar event Friday at City Hall.

The formal holiday is June 19, marking the day in 1865 when about 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to announce that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free.

It happened more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece described the act of raising the flag as a symbol of the freedom of African Americans and the generations’ worth of contributions they’ve made to this country.

Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece called the Juneteenth flag a reminder of the work needed to improve residents’ economic and social freedom. (Spectrum News 1/Casey Weldon)

But more importantly, she said, it serves as a reminder of the work that needs to be done to support the success of the current and future generations of Black and brown people in Hamilton County and beyond.

“Juneteenth was about freedom, but also freedom to own land, freedom to have a great job, freedom to own a house, freedom to have access to contracts and opportunities. One thing we want people to do is recommit to do that,” she said.

Reece said we’re at a time in U.S. history where some of those freedoms are under attack for many residents, especially Black and brown people, Reece said. She noted a substantial decrease in homeownership among African Americans and a wealth gap between Black residents and other races.

Reece used Thursday’s flag-raising ceremony as an opportunity to highlight work being done by Hamilton County to address some of those issues. She outlined several county efforts to improve the quality of life for all residents. That includes improving diversity in contracting practices, supporting small businesses and creating affordable homeownership opportunities, Reece said.

The commissioner directed the use of $40 million in American Rescue Plan funding toward the creation of affordable housing and homelessness prevention work. They’re also using it to help in-need homeowners with mortgage payments and house repairs.

Based on the results of a recent disparity study, the county has set contracting goals for minority and women-owned businesses, per the county. The county estimated those goals would amount to about $14 million a year for those types of businesses, about $70 million over a five-year period.

The county opened an Office of Small Business to support the success of those businesses.

“This is about celebrating the local Black community but also helping to support them,” Reece added.

The County Commission voted in 2021 to declare Juneteenth a formal holiday in Hamilton County. It became a federal holiday later that year. The local effort was led by Commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas.

Commissioner Denise Driehaus, who is white, referred to Juneteenth as a call to action for all residents, regardless of race. She invited residents to participate in the many events over the weekend.

Findlay Market, for instance, is holding a two-day event focused on supporting its 47 Black-owned businesses. But the biggest celebration is Juneteenth Cincinnati.

County officials and invited dignitaries took turns ringing a bell outside the Hamilton County Courthouse during the flag-raising ceremony. (Spectrum News 1/Casey Weldon)

Lydia Morgan and a group of friends started Juneteenth Cincinnati in 1988. It began as a neighborhood festival in Kennedy Heights that attracted about 1,500 people to Daniel Drake Park.

Morgan came up with the idea for the celebration while stumbling across a Juneteenth festival while on vacation in Arizona with her husband. She said she’d never heard of such a celebration before that trip.

“It was marvelous, and I was happy and jubilant,” Morgan said of that first experience. “I came back and told all my friends and they said, ‘Let’s do something.’ And that’s what we did.”

Over the past 36 years, Juneteenth Cincinnati has grown into a weekend-long series of activities at Eden Park. There’s a parade in downtown Cincinnati on Monday, but it isn’t connected to the festival.

Events at the park on Fulton Avenue begin Saturday at noon. There will be food, art, vendors, play areas for children and even health screenings. There will be two stages of music. Over the years, music types have ranged from blues and jazz to reggae and African drumming and dancing.

On Sunday afternoon, Juneteenth Cincinnati will once again host the June Fest Father’s Day Concert. The four-hour concert at Seasongood Pavilion will feature inspirational spiritual music and praise dancing.

Juneteenth Cincinnati will be a lot of fun, Morgan said, but its roots remain in history. She referred to the events of Juneteenth as “American history, not just African American history.”

Attendees can watch historical reenactments and listen in on storytelling sessions. There will be formal history lessons and less formal discussions on race and equity.

This year, teens will take part in a panel on current issues and how they affect them, Morgan said. The group will also share ideas for how to improve things for themselves and future generations.

Younger children will receive books, including one on the history of Juneteenth.

The true goal of Juneteenth Cincinnati, Morgan said, is to help people understand the legacy of slavery in the U.S. so they can better appreciate the need to protect their freedom.

“We want to help people see what they can do to ensure no one can take their rights away,” she added.