My Juneteenth Menu Is a Celebration of Black Culture
Juneteenth is a portmanteau of June and 19th, commemorating June 19, 1865: the day Union soldiers arrived in Confederate territory of Galveston, Texas, and announced the freedom of enslaved persons following the end of the Civil War. The overdue announcement came a full two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and there are multiple theories as to the delay. Maybe it was because Texas didn’t have many Union soldiers present, or perhaps enslavers wanted to keep getting free labor, especially harvesting cotton and corn. Even long after Juneteenth, many African Americans were unfortunately still enslaved. Although the end of slavery stretched out over many years of American history, Juneteenth remained an important, symbolic date. The holiday is also called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day.
When I was growing up in New Orleans, I took part in plenty of celebrations of Black culture, but rarely anything grand for Juneteenth. I only learned of Juneteenth parades, cookouts, and festivals in the 2000s when I attended Dillard University, a historically Black New Orleans university full of Texans who grew up celebrating. So if this is your first time observing Juneteenth, don’t feel behind. It only became a federal holiday in June 2021.
Early Juneteenth menus included traditional Black Southern summer dishes—the ones synonymous with “the cookout” today—barbecue, coleslaw, peach cobbler. Red foods that symbolize the blood Black Americans shed during slavery are a major component of any Juneteenth menu. Like Black culture, Juneteenth celebrations are not a monolith. We all do things a little differently, but one umbrella rule I could give is to try your best to proudly and purposefully support and honor Black people. My Juneteenth menu has everything you’d need for a gathering in honor of Black culture.
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Photo by Beatriz Da Costa1/9Grilled Watermelon Salad With Lime Mango Dressing and Cornbread Croutons
Figuring out what to bring to friends’ cookouts used to be stressful, until I started making fruit salad. I hate to give up the game like this, but it’s really a perfect party dish for several reasons. People are hot and might not want to eat anything too heavy. You know we don’t eat everybody’s potato salad. Fruit salad makes it clear you can cook, but it’s neither labor-intensive nor cost-prohibitive. And after lots of drinking and carrying on, fruit salad can refresh you while satisfying that craving for “something sweet.” This particular fruit salad recipe, from JJ Johnson, Alexander Smalls, and Veronica Chambers’s Between Harlem and Heaven, layers fresh, sweet, spicy, smoky, salty, and creamy flavors; and crunchy, smooth, crispy, and chewy textures. Leaning on watermelon and mango, this fruit salad will absolutely wow the party.
