Juneteenth Weekend 2025
History & Music
June 19-22 Activities
National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum presents
Thursday June 19, 6:19pm ~ Bell Ringing and Documentary film
Peterboro Juneteenth Weekend 2025 begins with 19 bell rings, followed by a free program of the history of Juneteenth by Milton Sernett, and the new documentary film North to Freedom.
Friday June 20, 7:00pm ~ Documentary film
Free documentary film: Enslavement After Emancipation. About the Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Free event at the Smithfield Community Center
Saturday June 21, 9:00am ~ Methods and Models of Underground Railroad Research
Judith Wellman PhD, is the author of the five point scale to determine the authenticity of an Underground Railroad site. (This scale has become known as the Wellman Scale.) Professor emerita, State University of New York at Oswego, and Director of Historical New York Research Associates, Dr. Wellman is also author of surveys, books, and studies specializing in nineteenth Century America, women’s history, the Underground Railroad, and historic preservation. Judy has been a leader in the studies of the 19th C. reform era and is one of the three incorporators of the Underground Railroad CONSORTIUM of New York State.
Madison County Freedom Trail Commission
Madison County Historian, Matthew Urtz will then share a brief history of the Madison County Freedom Trail Commission, explain the placement of the Madison County Underground Railroad records, and introduce members of that Commission who will share how the commission got started, the roles and research they undertook, and why they did the work. The session will end with a question and answer period. This program is sponsored by the Friends Meeting House in Farmington NY and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro NY.
Saturday June 21, 11:30am ~ Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman, and the UndergroundRailroad Byway
Kate Clifford Larson PhD will return to Peterboro to continue her advocacy for Peterboro 19th C. history, speak to the legacies of Fannie Lou Hamer and Harriet Tubman, and describe the merits of the 550 mile Tubman Corridor being developed in New York State. Larson is an author of critically acclaimed biographies including Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, and Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer. With two degrees from Simmons University, an MBA from Northeastern, and a doctorate in American History from the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Larson is an award-winning historical consultant who has worked on feature film scripts, documentaries, museum exhibits, curriculum guides, public history initiatives, heritage tourism products, and numerous publications. She is a primary consultant for the National Park Service Harriet Tubman sites in Auburn NY and Cambridge MD, and was a consultant for the movie Harriet in 2019.
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is grateful to former New York State Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann’s Civil Rights Connection for its support of the Larson program. From 1996-2008 the Civil Rights Connection provided high school students from Hoffmann’s legislative district to go to Mississippi to help with community service projects and to meet Civil Rights activists.
Saturday June 21, 12:30 ~ Teaching White Supremacy
Donald Yacovone PhD, Associate at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, will present on his publication Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity. Yacovone addresses “What We Face: The Historic Battle Over American Identity” and shows evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s education system with an in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks and other higher education course materials.
Yacovone received a PhD at Claremont Graduate University and has taught at several colleges and universities. He helped edit the Black Abolitionist Papers, and before becoming the Manager of Research and Program Development at the Hutchins Center, Yacovone was the Senior Associate Editor of Publications at the Massachusetts Historical Society where he was a founder and editor of the Massachusetts Historical Review. He has written widely on abolitionism, gender, the African American role in the Civil War, white supremacy, and American cultural history. He has received the W.E.B. Du Bois medal, Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African American studies.
Saturday June 21, 3:00 ~ Peterboro Freedom Folk Festival
The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (5304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro NY 13134) will present the Peterboro Freedom Folk Festival with musical performances by
$15 Advance, $20 Day of Show
Sunday, June 22 10:45 ~ The Churches of Peterboro
The closing program of Peterboro Juneteenth Weekend 2025 is at 10:45 am on Sunday, June 22nd at the Peterboro United Methodist Church (PUMC), 5240 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134. Donna Dorrance Burdick, historian of the Hamlet of Peterboro and the Town of Smithfield, will present Churches of Peterboro. Burdick will share her research and images of the churches that were once in Peterboro as well as the PUMC. With regard to the Juneteenth Weekend, Donna will feature the history of the Black Church of Peterboro.
Donna Dorrance Burdick is a native of Peterboro, Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York. When she was a young girl, Donna’s interest in local history was sparked after her maternal grandmother gave her five Peterboro postcards. In 1964, Donna completed high school at Morrisville-Eaton Central School, where she was the salutatorian of her class. The topic of her graduation speech was Gerrit Smith, Peterboro’s Philanthropist and Abolitionist.
Donna has been the Smithfield Town Historian since 1995. In 2013, she was named a Registered Historian in New York State. Among varied interests, she has devoted many hours to genealogical research, resulting in the creation of hundreds of family folders, including more than 30 files on the Black families of Smithfield. She has also conducted research on the several families connected to Gerrit Smith. Through the years, she has written about and given presentations on many aspects of Peterboro and Smithfield history. In 2021, Donna collaborated with Milton Sernett on the publication Within These Walls: Celebrating 200 Years of the Smithfield Community Center.