WHO: The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) 

WHAT: MWRD’s Board of Commissioners and staff will gather to raise the Juneteenth flag

WHERE: Barbara J. McGowan Main Office Building, 100 E. Erie St., Chicago, and at all seven water reclamation plants   

WHEN: Friday, June 13 at 10 a.m.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) will celebrate Juneteenth with a flag raising ceremony at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 13, 2025, at the Barbara J. McGowan Main Office Building and at all seven water reclamation plants.   

Juneteenth is a federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The name combines “June” and “nineteenth” to mark the historic day—June 19, 1865—when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Juneteenth has since been observed annually throughout the United States, growing in recognition in the Chicago area. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, creating a federal holiday. Although the federal government did not observe Juneteenth as a national holiday until 2021, two years prior, the MWRD offered the day as a paid optional holiday, the first to do so in Cook County.