This content is from the Black Heritage Trail NH website. Visit the website for a list of events.

BHTNH 2025 Juneteenth Celebration

A Reckoning: Reclaiming the Past, Remembering Black Voices, Reshaping the Future

June 8, 10-15, & 19

The celebration includes a movie screening and discussion, history tours, a gospel choir concert, a panel discussion, and celebrations, including a freedom dinner and an African drumming ceremony.

In challenging times, it can be difficult to have productive conversations about the past and its significance for the future. This is especially true when historical facts about America’s past, such as those about our early presidents, do not reconcile with the sanitized versions we are taught.

American history often portrays the “Founding Fathers” as paragons of virtue while omitting the realities of slavery, exploitation, racial inequality, and profiteering woven into the nation's foundation. When historical figures held in high regard are revealed to have enslaved and fathered Black children, it forces a deeper reckoning with how racism shaped American institutions. It makes slavery and its legacy personal rather than abstract.

This Juneteenth, we weave together three powerful narratives—stories that disrupt the illusion of separate racial histories and identities in America. Through the voices of descendants, cutting-edge technology, and Ona Marie Judge Staines's courageous journey, we underscore that Black and white histories have always been intertwined, making it harder to uphold a rigid "us vs. them" mindset.

Knowing these truths forces us to confront the gap between America’s ideals and history. This Juneteenth, we reclaim, we remember, and we resist erasure.