posted on 6/19/2026

Members of the Committee for Racial Equity and Inclusion, School Board, City Council, and Zoning Board joined Mayor Dennis Shanahan in raising the Juneteenth flag in front of City Hall on Thursday, June 18. Before raising the flag, Mayor Shanahan read a proclamation declaring today, Friday, June 19, as Juneteenth Day in Dover. The flag will remain above City Hall through Saturday morning.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought news of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War to Galveston, Texas, one of the most remote slave-owning states at the time, freeing the last remaining enslaved African Americans over two years after the proclamation took effect. The day is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of slavery's end in the United States. New Hampshire has not codified Juneteenth as a state holiday but observes the day with a proclamation from the governor, per RSA 4:13-aa, adopted in 2019.