‘Not just a festival’: Anaheim welcomes Juneteenth celebration after Santa Ana split
Already home to an annual Black History Parade, Anaheim is now the host city for the premiere Juneteenth Festival in Orange County.
The celebration promises a free, family-friendly day full of good food, entertainment, Black history and educational resources on June 15 at Pearson Park.
Like the Black History Parade, the Juneteenth Festival is being organized by the Orange County Heritage Council, a volunteer-run nonprofit focused on uplifting the Black community.
“Juneteenth is not just a festival, it’s a significant celebration marking the end of slavery,” said Dwayne Shipp, O.C. Heritage Council’s executive director. “We pay homage to the relentless pursuit of freedom.”
The show returns to Chapman University’s Musco Center for the Arts to tell the story of “soulful queens” through Black history, art, music and dance.
In what became known as Juneteenth, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and thousands of federal troops arrived to Galveston, Texas, and freed enslaved Black people from the defeated Confederate holdout on June 19, 1865.
Juneteenth gained renewed attention in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis policeman was recorded and ignited protests for racial justice across the world. In the aftermath, President Joe Biden signed legislation in 2021 that made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
That same year, Shipp helped revive the tradition of local Juneteenth celebrations when the O.C. Heritage Council organized a festival at Santa Ana’s Centennial Park with three weeks to spare.
He reached out to Barbara Junious, the longtime executive director of OC Learning Black History, about picking up where she left off in putting together similar events in the past.
“I’ve been waiting for you to do it because you have so much of your mother in you and you have what it takes,” Shipp recalled Junious telling him.
Shipp’s late mother, Helen, co-founded the Orange County Black Historical Commission and also founded the Orange County Black History Parade and Cultural Faire, which took place in Santa Ana for decades.
Santa Ana sponsored the next two O.C. Heritage Council Juneteenth festivals until a falling out between the two ended the relationship, especially after this year’s celebration was opened up for competitive bids in November for the stated purposes of transparency, fairness, having a defined budget and specified roles for city staff and event organizers.
“City staff encouraged Orange County Heritage Council to submit a proposal ... so that they could be considered to once again produce this event,” said Paul Eakins, a Santa Ana spokesman, “but they did not do so.”
The O.C. Heritage Council took the open bids as a slight since they were the nonprofit behind the celebration in the first place.
“Where was everybody when the Juneteenth Festival was created?” Shipp asked. “Did everybody create it? No, everybody didn’t create it. We created it.”
The nonprofit has stated through its social media accounts that it doesn’t support the Santa Ana Juneteenth picnic happening in its place.
Harlen “Lamb” Lambert sat attentively a year ago as Daniel Michael Lynem, a former Black Panther, spoke about his life during a small gathering at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana.
Currently, just 2.3% of the county’s population is Black.
Their small but storied presence has historically centered in southwest Santa Ana, but in recent years, Anaheim has become home to about 10,000 Black residents, more than anywhere else in the county.
As Anaheim welcomed the O.C. Heritage Council’s annual Black History Parade that Santa Ana had hosted for decades, the nonprofit turned to the city for the Juneteenth Festival.
“We had them go through our special event application process, as we would with any group,” said Mike Lyster, an Anaheim spokesman. “With that application, we are waiving rental fees, with the group still responsible for staff costs. We’re waiving rental fees because this is a nonprofit cultural event open to everyone.”
Anaheim City Council has since asked for the areas around the Pearson Park amphitheater to be made available to the festival.
That’s where food vendors will serve up savory barbecue from Santa Ana Redds and Southern desserts courtesy of A.D.’s Sweets N Treats, just to name a few.
Disneyland, which offers Juneteenth as a paid company holiday to its employees, is one of the event’s sponsors.
Last year’s festival in Santa Ana attracted big name musical acts like Talib Kweli, Brody Brown and DJ Battlecat. In Anaheim, the focus has shifted toward highlighting talent closer to home.
“A lot of people were looking for local artists,” Shipp said of last year’s event. “This year, we took an approach of wanting to highlight the people that from here.”
Jamal Jones, War Bux, and the DAT Krew dance academy are just some of the performers that will grace the Pearson Park amphitheater stage.
Community organizations, labor unions and churches are also slated to be on hand, including United Domestic Workers, Black in Orange County, New Covington Church, O.C. Learning Black History, CalOptima, and the O.C. Health Care Agency.
“Having a celebration is one thing, but being able to go and get resources that you need for your family, for your life, that’s important,” Shipp said. “Outside of the food and entertainment, there’s wellness.”
Pearson Park hosting the Juneteenth Festival isn’t without a sense of historical progress, either.
The Ku Klux Klan held an infamous rally at the park a century ago in 1924, which drew more than 20,000 people.
Shipp called the literal turn of events an “evolution” over time.
As the O.C. Heritage Council is starting a new chapter with a new host city for its Junteenth Festival, event organizers expect attendance to be the same in Anaheim as it has been in Santa Ana the past few years.
“The people are with us,” Shipp said. “They will be in Anaheim and having a wonderful time because our culture is not for sale.”
For more information on the Juneteenth Festival, visit the Orange County Heritage Council online.
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