Juneteenth Festival


Our Founder's Mission Statement



"The Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas was started to share the history of chattel slavery in the USA and to commemorate its historical ending. The main intent of the festival is to examine the cultural heritage of enslaved Africans and their descendants through art, education, and research. Our goal is not to recreate the past but to venerate our ancestors and, in their honor, cultivate the true spirit of freedom."

#CLTJuneteenth 2025 marks the 28th Annual Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas! For over two decades, this cultural celebration has connected history and the future.

Pape S. Ndiaye,

Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas,

Founder and President



In memory of Marilyn Griffith Turner, Juneteenth of the Carolinas, first Chairperson who served tirelessly from 1997 until her transition in April 2006. She was instrumental in helping to educate the Charlotte community and beyond about the significance of Juneteenth as a part of African American history. "But if this part of our history could be told in such a way that those chains of the past, those shackles that physically bound us together against our wills could, in the telling, become spiritual links that willingly bind us together now and into the future - then that painful Middle Passage could become, ironically, a positive connecting line to all of us whether living inside or outside the continent of Africa..."

​ - Marilyn Griffith Turner