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Menlo Park Mayor Cecilia Taylor speaks at the city of Menlo Park’s Juneteenth celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park on Saturday June 15, 2024. Photo by Karina Patel. 
Muisi-Kongo Malonga teaches Menlo Park residents traditional Congoloese dance while her cousin (back), Armel Mampouya, plays the Ngoma, a Congolese drum during Menlo Park’s Juneteenth celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park on June 15, 2024. Photo Karina Patel. 
Residents of Menlo Park learn and dance traditional Congolese dance during the city’s Juneteenth celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park on June 15, 2024. Photo Karina Patel. 
Harlow Walker (bottom left) follows along as Muisi-Kongo Malonga (center) shows residents traditional Congoloese dance during the City of Menlo Park’s Juneteenth celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park on June 15, 2024. Photo Karina Patel. 
Muisi-Kongo Malonga shows residents traditional Congoloese dance during the City of Menlo Park’s Juneteenth celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park on June 15, 2024. Photo Karina Patel.
Menlo Park residents, alongside Mayor Cecilia Taylor, gathered for an afternoon full of food, live music, cultural entertainment and joy as they celebrated Juneteenth on Saturday, June 15. Attendees learned traditional Congolese dances from Muisi-kongo Malonga, heard hit songs from black artists performed by Darrey Williams and band and listened to a spoken word performance by Deaidre White.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the effective end of slavery in the United States. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on June 19, 1869, the Union Army made its way to Galveston and announced to the people of Texas that all enslaved people were to be freed. The holiday has since spread to the rest of the United States and beyond.
