Mattoon Presbyterian Church in Greenville will host a Juneteenth event on Thursday, June 19, 2025 that will include musical performances, arts, food, activities for children, speakers, and community discussion. SC Humanities supported this event with a Mini Grant.
“From Roots to Plates: Celebrating Juneteenth with Nutritious Food” will feature a keynote lecture from Dr. Marlon Smith, Director of the Center for African American and Africana Studies at USC Upstate. He will speak about “Celebrating Juneteenth Through Courageous Conversation with Food, Nutrition, and Access,” which will look at food access and its intersections with poverty and education.
The Rev. Dr. Lerone Wilder said that the keynote talk “is another opportunity for our community to become equipped, empowered, educated, and engaged in conversation and contemplation that will lead to developing policies and practices that strengthen the ‘beloved community.'”
The Juneteenth event will start at 5:30 p.m. at Mattoon Presbyterian Church, 415 Hampton Ave, Greenville, SC 29601. Other planned activities include crafts for children, food trucks, musical performances, and more.
Mattoon Presbyterian Church is a historic institution, which began at the railroad station on West Washington Street in Greenville in 1878. In the period after the Civil War, Mattoon served as a beacon for a transient community traveling in and out of Greenville. The leaders built a church school, which was open through 1929 and which educated many African-American residents of Greenville. Learn more about the church history: https://mattoonpres.org/our-history/.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c)3 organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos, and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
