Helena Community to Celebrate Juneteenth

• June 12 2025

Helena, MT – Alive at Five, the City of Helena, the Montana Historical Society, The Myrna Loy, and the Holter Museum of Art are partnering to celebrate Juneteenth with two days of planned activities.

 Juneteenth, or June 19, commemorates the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which had declared the end of slavery in places under Confederate control two and a half years earlier. The proclamation had been largely ignored in Texas. Newly freed Black people celebrated and started an annual tradition of Juneteenth commemorations with music, barbecues, church services, and other activities.

 This year, the Helena community will celebrate with several events and activities spread across two days of celebration.

 On Wednesday, June 18, Alive at Five will kick off the celebrations at Lewis and Clark Brewing from 5 pm to 9 pm. Food trucks will be on site, and Ronnie and the Redwoods, a Rock and Americana band from West Texas, will be offering a live performance. A portion of the proceeds from this event will be dedicated to Black History education.

 Thursday, June 19, will see a bevy of events including a Black History tour train, a performance by spoken word artist Blck Agua and film director and author Nnamdi Kanaga, and a city barbeque which will include food provided by the Helena Fire Department, lawn games, and community artmaking opportunities. All Thursday events will be held at the Myrna Loy or on the County Courthouse lawn.

 Emancipation Day celebrations have a deep-rooted history in Montana. From the 1880s until at least the 1930s, Black communities across Montana held Emancipation Day celebrations in Anaconda, Basin, Billings, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, and Miles City. Attendance ranged from several dozen to as many as a thousand people, with railways often offering reduced fares for the day. Aside from ample food, celebrations featured speeches from black pastors and white politicians, dancing, music, theatrical performances, target shooting, baseball, boating, fishing, racing, lawn games, and the occasional greased pole climbing contest. In 1885, The Montana Record-Herald characterized the Helena celebration as a “whirlwind of mirth and festivity,” and the following year, Bozeman’s Mrs. Ely called the Helena gathering “the proudest day of her life.”

For further details about Juneteenth activities, visit https://mths.mt.gov/education/index1 or email Laura Marsh at laura.marsh@mt.gov