As Juneteenth is celebrated across the US, Obama’s presidential center opens in Chicago

As Juneteenth is celebrated across the US, Obama’s presidential center opens in Chicago 0 seconds of 1 minute, 42 secondsVolume 0% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up Thousands gather for the Netherlands' iconic Orange Parade 00:41 Subtitle Settings OffEnglish(US)_v Font Color White Font Opacity 100% Font Size 100% Font Family Arial Character Edge None Edge Color Black Background Color Black Background Opacity 50% Window Color Black Window Opacity 0% Reset WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25% 200%175%150%125%100%75%50% ArialCourierGeorgiaImpactLucida ConsoleTahomaTimes New RomanTrebuchet MSVerdana NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop Shadow WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% 00:00 01:42 01:42 More Videos 00:41 Thousands gather for the Netherlands' iconic Orange Parade 00:56 Delirious celebrations in New York as Knicks win first NBA championship in 53 years 02:07 Kennedy orders cruise ship passenger to stay in quarantine, outraging some advocates and lawyers 01:24 Former presidents, celebrities, join Obamas to open presidential museum in Chicago 01:00 Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bono kick off the Obama Presidential Center 01:24 Obama: Americans want to ‘turn towards each other again’ 01:00 AP Top Stories June 19 01:02 AP Top Stories June 18 Close 1 of 8 | The Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago to the general public on Juneteenth after a celebratory dedication in Chicago with dignitaries. (AP video by Obed Lamy) More Videos 0 seconds of 1 minute, 0Volume 90% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up Former presidents, celebrities, join Obamas to open presidential museum in Chicago 01:24 Subtitle Settings OffEnglish(US)_v Font Color White Font Opacity 100% Font Size 100% Font Family Arial Character Edge None Edge Color Black Background Color Black Background Opacity 50% Window Color Black Window Opacity 0% Reset WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25% 200%175%150%125%100%75%50% ArialCourierGeorgiaImpactLucida ConsoleTahomaTimes New RomanTrebuchet MSVerdana NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop Shadow WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% 00:00 01:00 01:00 More Videos Close 2 of 8 | Former President Barack Obama formally opened his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday with help from music legends and superstar acts, including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony and Eddie Vedder. (June 18) More Videos 0 seconds of 1 minute, 24 secondsVolume 90% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up Former presidents, celebrities, join Obamas to open presidential museum in Chicago 01:24 Subtitle Settings OffEnglish(US)_v Font Color White Font Opacity 100% Font Size 100% Font Family Arial Character Edge None Edge Color Black Background Color Black Background Opacity 50% Window Color Black Window Opacity 0% Reset WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25% 200%175%150%125%100%75%50% ArialCourierGeorgiaImpactLucida ConsoleTahomaTimes New RomanTrebuchet MSVerdana NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop Shadow WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% Auto1080p1080p720p540p360p270p180p 00:00 01:24 01:24 More Videos Close 3 of 8 | Former President Barack Obama, joined by three former presidents, celebrated the opening of his presidential center in Chicago in an event that brought together world leaders, A-list celebrities, athletes and other internationally known figures. 4 of 8 | A person, who declined to give his name, stands for a photo during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 5 of 8 | Former President Barack Obama holds a baby as he and First Lady Michelle Obama greet community members in the Hope and Change lobby before they walk through the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) 6 of 8 | Drummers perform during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 7 of 8 | Lena Quintal, 10, a rising sixth-grader at Putney, Vt., Central School, shovels rocks into a wheelbarrow with other students as part of the school’s Community Schools Initiative on Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Kristopher Radder /The Brattleboro Reformer via AP) 8 of 8 | Members of the SHINE Muwasi women’s African drum circle perform during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) By JAMIE STENGLE Updated 10:57 PM MESZ, June 19, 2026 Leer en español Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit DALLAS (AP) — As people gathered across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the first visitors to his presidential center. Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center honoring the nation’s first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It’s the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. Former President Barack Obama gives a high-five during a book reading with children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state’s enslaved people to be free with “absolute equality.” By then, 2 1/2 years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of enslaved people in the South. “Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of Liberty.” The grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center includes days of events following Thursday’s star-studded dedication ceremony. In addition to greeting visitors Friday as the center opened to the public for the first time, the couple also read to children gathered there. Tyrone Sturgis, 62, said it had been a beautiful experience to see all of the people from different walks of life explore the new presidential center on Friday. “For this center to open on Juneteenth, on the South Side of Chicago, it’s extraordinary, it’s awesome,” he said. Barack and Michelle Obama surprise first visitors to newly opened presidential center 2 MIN READ 14 Vance’s push to get Iran talks started hits an early bump 6 MIN READ 452 Obama Center opens in Chicago with a call to defend democracy and a celebrity crowd 4 MIN READ 786 The center’s public opening arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy and liberation. The nation is deeply divided politically and grappling with renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political representation in Congress. Former President Barack Obama speaks during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry) Former President Barack Obama, left, and former first lady Michelle Obama read to school children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by Michelle Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library. Visitors can experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House. The spaces are designed to bring people together on a campus expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually, but the center also aims to encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director, has said they’re “inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large.” This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts. The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas port city with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3. Drummers form a circle around Sika Dwimfo, better known as the, “Godfather of Leimert Park,” during the neighborhood’s Juneteenth celebration, June 19, 2024, at Leimert Park in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a promise of liberation, to be secured with a Union victory. “It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said. About six months after Granger’s arrival in Galveston, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide was ratified. Juneteenth’s birthplace is celebrating with a daylong gathering at a Galveston park with music and fireworks, a parade and a worship service in a historic Black church. In nearby Houston there was a line-up of musical artists and a domino tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of formerly enslaved men. Hundreds of other cities across the U.S. announced events over the long weekend, including a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a festival on Martha’s Vineyard. People also gathered for community projects to mark the day, including a group of schoolchildren in Vermont. People participate during a Juneteenth parade, June 19, 2025, in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File) Several cities across the U.S. will host walks named for Opal Lee, the Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Participants will walk 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year. Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate, even as the Ku Klux Klan was established in Texas by 1868. By the 1880s, “it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said. “They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and institution-building,” he added. Corey D.B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school, said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially amid efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to undermine the retelling of Black history. “I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s experiment with democracy,” Walker said. Associated Press writer Claire Savage contributed to this report.