DEI Bans Leave ​Juneteenth Organizers Scrambling To Make Up For Lost Corporate Funding

Some towns and cities are scaling back their June 19 Juneteenth celebrations — or canceling them altogether — due to concerns about violating the Trump administration’s executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Organizers in other places are making the celebrations bolder than ever and are doubling down on the message that America needs deep, transformative conversations now more than ever.

Juneteenth is the oldest-known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. It commemorates June 19, 1865, the day word reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, that they were free, effectively ending slavery in the states. That was more than two months after the Civil War ended, and two and one-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln.

The historically important date was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021 in the wake of the watershed George Floyd protests of 2020 that triggered a shift in public discourse and awareness regarding race, racism and police brutality.

Many initiatives developed as a result are targeted in Trump’s executive action, and although Juneteenth remains a federal holiday — Congress created it and only Congress can repeal it — civil rights groups contend the DEI bans have a chilling effect on Juneteenth. They argue the bans undermine the principles of equality and equal opportunity that Juneteenth represents.

In one stark example, in a memo in January, the Defense Intelligence Agency mandated a halt to all activities linked to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and other “special observances.”

Corporate Sponsorships, Grants End

Some Juneteenth organizers across the country are scrambling to make up for lost corporate sponsorships from businesses and organizations working to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders designed to limit DEI initiatives. Many of these companies have contracts directly with the government or receive indirect federal funding through contracts with nonprofits that provide services, such as workplace diversity training. Or, they may simply have shifted priorities due to the politics of DEI.

For example, the organizers of the Denver Juneteenth Music Festival had to scale back this year’s event from three days to one after a funding shortfall of $80,000, including a more than 60 percent decrease in corporate sponsorships compared to the previous year, The Denver Post reported.

The Cooper Family Foundation’s 50th annual Juneteenth Celebration in San Diego lost a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that “made a huge difference in the quality of what we were able to present to the community,” family member Marla Cooper told news station KGTV in March, adding the festival’s target audience is an underserved community.

“We’re scrambling to figure out how we can still have a quality event with $25,000 less,” Cooper said at the time. “To some people, that’s no money, but to us, that is a lot of funding that we budget for each and every year.”

The family is committed to continuing the family Juneteenth Festival, both this year on June 21 and beyond.

“We’re still going to have Juneteenth. We are still going to fundraise year-round. We’re still going to dig in our own pockets because it’s our love project,” Cooper told KGTV. “So we’re not going to stop what we’re doing, but it is a huge impact on us.”

‘Safety Must Come First’

A parade in Indianapolis was called off after organizers were unable to secure a location for the event from the city after months of negotiations, the Indianapolis Star reported. However, Indy Juneteenth will still host a celebration with a June 21 festival at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on June 21.

Organizers of a Juneteenth festival in Bend, Oregon, reluctantly canceled the 2025 celebration due to safety concerns.

“As you know, Juneteenth is more than just a holiday for us — it’s a time to uplift our history, celebrate our resilience, and stand in joyful solidarity,” The Father’s Group said in a statement on its Facebook page. “But in today's increasingly volatile political climate, with rising incidents of racial aggression and threats — particularly toward Black and Latino communities — safety must come first,” the group said, adding, “We’d rather pause now than regret later.”

The group said it will regroup with a 2026 event that is “stronger, safer and bolder than ever.”

The Juneteenth celebration is also off in Plano, Illinois, the first community in the state to adopt Juneteenth as an official holiday in 2021, before it was made a federal holiday.

Plano 2nd Ward Alderman Jamal Williams, the event organizer for the past four years, said in a Facebook post it would be canceled this year “due to circumstances outside my control, community engagement and community feedback.”

“This event is not just an African American event,” Williams has said, according to Shaw Local News Network. “It’s historic in nature because Plano is the only city in the state of Illinois that can celebrate being the first to recognize it. And we also want to celebrate those who have been marginalized for a long period of time. This celebration is for all of us to come together and recognize history in the city of Plano.”

Nation’s Biggest, Oldest Celebration

Organizers of the Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee, which has strong corporate support from professional sports teams, Bader Philanthropies and other companies, expect record attendance at the 54th annual festival this year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The festival is widely considered one of the largest and oldest Juneteenth celebrations in the country. Events at the June 19 event include a parade, the Freedom Ball, and food, music, art and educational booths along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Michigan United, a statewide advocacy group whose work includes transformative justice for communities of color, is planning a June 13-21 with its “Week of Resistance” Juneteenth observance, which organizers said occurs “in the face of ongoing attacks on our rights, voices, and communities.”

The Smithsonian Institution is hosting several events this year at its National Museum of African American History and Culture, despite edicts from the Trump administration prohibiting “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

The so-called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order also prohibits “exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.”

The museum is hosting its annual Juneteenth Celebration from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 19 with an interactive community mural, Double Dutch, an urban gardening workshop and performances by local musicians.

Also, from June 18-20, The National Archives is displaying both the original Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3 issued on June 19, 1865, by Union General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas, that finally informed enslaved people in Texas that they were free.

Other Juneteenth events include the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibit “We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists” continues through June 22. The Anacostia Community Museum's Juneteenth Freedom Celebration on June 19 includes “The Artist's Experience: From Brotherman to Batman,” an exhibit that celebrates the works of 20 Black comic book artists. The exhibit continues until mid-July.

Although partially federally funded, The Smithsonian is a hybrid institution with both federal and non-federal employees and funding sources, which gives it some degree of autonomy in its programming.

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