Juneteenth celebration at Atlanta's civil rights museum focuses on youth activism, music, healing and liberation

Jim Burress | WABE

June 17th, 2022

In this June 16, 2014 photo, a movie plays as part of the March on Washington exhibit at the newly built National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The new museum about the history of civil rights opens next week in Atlanta, the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was based. But the National Center for Civil and Human Rights also explores other human rights struggles, from women’s rights and LGBT issues to immigration and child labor. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

This weekend Atlanta is full of options to celebrate Juneteenth — or the emancipation of Black Americans.

Atlanta’s National Center for Civil and Human Rights has options to celebrate liberation and be festive. It will also display “A Legacy of Protest: King and Youth Activism,” which explores how young people in the 1960s inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for equality. It’s part of the King Collection housed permanently at Morehouse College.

The Center’s Director of Exhibitions, Lance Wheeler, sat down with WABE and gave a rundown of what visitors will experience. Besides the King exhibit, event-goers can immerse themselves in music, history and culture — and what the Center argues are new traditions being created in honor of the new federal holiday.

Lily Oppenheimer contributed to this report.

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