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Juneteenth celebration march past the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza, New York City, June 2020
Several Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled down or cancelled this year due to companies and governments dropping DEI.
As dozens of corporations pull their sponsorships from LGBTQ+ Pride events, several more companies and even local governments have also stopped supporting Juneteenth celebrations.
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More than a dozen companies have backed out of the Juneteenth Music Festival in Denver, executive director Norman Harris recently told The Associated Press. In Colorado Springs, the Southern Colorado Juneteenth Festival had to move to a smaller location after retaining sponsorships from only five companies compared to dozes in previous years, planner Jennifer Smith said.
Other events hosted by local governments have been flat out cancelled, including one that has been hosted annually since 2017 by the West Virginia governor. The governor's office told the outlet that it would not be hosting the event "due to the continued fiscal challenges facing West Virginia." Scottsdale, Arizona will also not be hosting a Juneteenth celebration this year after the city council dissolved its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in February.
Several local organizations will no longer be able to hold celebrations after losing support from the National Endowment for the Arts. One of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in San Diego, hosted annually by the Cooper Family Foundation, was among the dozens of groups that had its $25,000 grant rescinded. The event will still go on, but members of the family have personally had to make up the difference.
Juneteenth, recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, is observed every June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S. The date marks when the last enslaved people in Texas were told they were free, a full two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
Even before Donald Trump's executive orders terminating all DEI positions in the federal government, dozens of major companies had already abandoned their practices. Many made their decisions after conservatives online specifically targeted them for their policies and threatened boycotts, with failed filmmaker turned failed congressional candidate Robby Starbuck taking credit for spearheading the movement.
This withdrawal didn't just encompass inclusive work environments and hiring practices, or participation in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index — in abandoning DEI, companies also ceased many of their community partnerships. This included small businesses, minority- and women-owned businesses, and organizations supporting underserved groups: veterans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.
As a result, many of the companies abandoning DEI have stopped sponsoring Juneteenth and Pride events. Heritage of Pride, the organization that produces New York City’s annual Pride events, previously had five "Platinum" donors — those who had donated $175,000. This year, it has just one. Groups behind WorldPride, San Francisco Pride, Silicon Valley Pride, Oakland Pride, St. Louis Pride, Columbus Pride, Twin Cities Pride, and Toronto Pride have also reported losing sponsors.
