(RNS) — For Christian evangelist Alveda King, niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Juneteenth is a time for remembrance and unity.
For the Rev. Stephen A. Green, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, it’s a moment for supporting voting rights and spiritual freedom.
For Bishop Garland Hunt, a nondenominational evangelical pastor, it is an opportunity to celebrate Black achievement and counter abortion rights.
As faith leaders mark the Friday (June 19) holiday that commemorates the date in 1865 when more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas learned they were free — two-and-a-half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — they are reflecting on that history while also looking ahead to work they say remains to improve an almost 250-year-old America. And despite the Trump administration’s contentious history with the holiday, for some, that means highlighting conservative causes and speakers, while for others more progressive ones.
Alveda King on the National Day of Prayer in 2020 during the DC Prayer March. Photo courtesy of King
King, a member of a nondenominational Full Gospel church in Atlanta, is an organizer of a Juneteenth celebration on Saturday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It is set to feature Ben Carson, former U.S. housing and urban development secretary, and a video for a new song King executive-produced titled “Happy Birthday USA.” King also plans to sing the national anthem at what she said is a free, nonpartisan event.
In an interview with Religion News Service, she recalled how her uncle and other family members focused on the Bible verse Acts 17:26 as they espoused the importance of human connection.
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Georgetown University hosted a panel titled “250 Years Towards Racial Justice: Progress, Promise, and Challenges” on Monday, June 15, 2026. The panel was moderated by Kimberly Mazyck and included Bishop-elect Robert Boxie III, Melvin Rogers and Diann Rust-Tierney. Video screengrab
“Of one blood, God made all people,” she said. “We are the human race, and I believe that. And I think that as we acknowledge the contributions of the African American community to America, it’s appropriate for us to lead the way in unifying and making a call for unity.”
At an online Georgetown University event on Monday timed to Juneteenth, Bishop-elect Robert Boxie III, the Catholic chaplain for Howard University, also expressed the need for Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the country to be times of healing and solidarity.
“Honestly, this whole division stuff that we are experiencing, this disunity, that’s tiring and exhausting,” said Boxie, who has been appointed a new auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington and was a panelist for the “250 Years Towards …