With Juneteenth now a federal holiday, more Americans are looking for meaningful ways to understand the history behind it and celebrate freedom for all.
Just eight miles from Washington, D.C., Alexandria, Virginia offers one of the most accessible places to experience this aspect of our country’s history.
The city’s streets tell a long story from times of enslavement and the Civil War to early civil rights organizing, and further on into today’s Black-owned businesses. That’s thanks to decades of work by local historians and community leaders who have thoughtfully preserved these layered histories via museums, landmarks and walking tours.
“Alexandria really focuses so much on its real history,” said Audrey Davis, director of African American History for the city. “We don’t have a lot of reproduction. We have real history.”
Such real history includes a strong network of programs like the Alexandria Black History Museum, which has recognized Juneteenth for over 30 years and is housed inside the site of America’s first documented library sit-in, along with an oral history department that records residents’ stories and preserves contemporary responses to recent history events like the 2020 George Floyd protests.
For travelers looking for more than festivals and fireworks, it’s programs like these that make Alexandria one of the best places to visit during Juneteenth and explore the deeper, ongoing story of freedom in America.
Visitors arrive at the Freedom House Museum at 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Va.
(Visit Alexandria)Start at the Freedom House Museum, named for a man who walked home from Texas
If you’re visiting Alexandria for Juneteenth, start at the Freedom House Museum. It explores over 400 years of American history. The building was once the headquarters of Franklin & Armfield, the country’s largest and most brutal slave trading firm. It operated as a professional office on the surface while functioning as a coordinated stop in a trafficking pipeline, where enslaved people were held before being sold to plantations in the South.
In the 1980s the building was renamed “Freedom House” after the story of Reverend Lewis Henry Bailey, a Black man who had been enslaved in Alexandria as a child and was later sold by his traffickers to Texas. After emancipation, he walked back to Virginia to try to find his family. Through newspaper ads and word of mouth, he eventually reunited with his mother. His journey inspired the name “Freedom House,” but as Davis says, most enslaved families were never reunited, and separation was far more common.
“The name really doesn’t fit the building,” Davis said. “This building is about anything but freedom.”
Today, the museum is intentional in how it tells this history. “We try to bring back focus on the humanity of the people who were enslaved,” said Davis. Three floors of exhibits walk you through several aspects of Black American history. While you’re there, look for the photograph of the United States Colored Troops who petitioned in 460 signatures to have their fallen comrades buried with the same honors as white soldiers.
“It’s really beautifully written,” said Davis. “We consider this our first organized civil rights action.”
Also look for the story of Shirley Lee Marshall, the first female African American scuba diver. Hers is one of the unexpected histories the museum surfaces as part of its broader mission to document Black achievement.
Pedestrians stroll past colorful storefronts along King Street in Old Town Alexandria, where historic brick sidewalks connect centuries of history with a thriving local business scene.
(Adedayo “Dayo” Kosoko for Visit Alexandria)Visit the former library where America’s first sit-in took place
The Alexandria Black History Museum is housed inside the Robert H. Robinson Library, an unassuming landmark that established major precedent for the years that would follow. In 1939, a group of Black staged one of the first-ever sit-ins in American history here and demanded access to the whites-only library. They were arrested, but their protest helped lead to the construction of the segregated library, where the museum is today, and eventually integrated libraries in the future.
While you’re in the neighborhood, make time for the Alexandria African American Hall of Fame. It’s housed a short walk down the street inside the Charles Houston Recreation Center built on the original site of Parker-Gray School, Alexandria’s historic Black high school. The exhibit honors trailblazers from the city’s African American community, including the first Black NBA basketball player Earl Lloyd. Lloyd grew up in Alexandria and in 1950 was drafted by the Washington Capitals.
Diners fill the outdoor deck at Barca, a waterfront restaurant on the Potomac River in Alexandria, Va.
(Eli Wilson via Getty Images)Watch the ships on the waterfront
Alexandria’s waterfront has its own layered history. The Potomac River was a conduit for both commerce and escape towards freedom.
As you stroll, think about Mary and Emily Edmonson, two enslaved sisters from Alexandria who are best known for their 1848 attempt to escape slavery alongside 77 other people who’d hidden aboard a schooner called The Pearl.
Sadly, the sisters were recaptured and resold to dealers in Alexandria, then shipped to New Orleans. Their freedom was ultimately purchased through a public fundraiser organized by abolitionist Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. Emily went on to study at Oberlin, and work alongside Frederick Douglass in the abolitionist movement. A bronze statue of both sisters has stood in Alexandria since 2010.
Visitors relax on the boardwalk along the Old Town Alexandria waterfront on the Potomac River,
(Grandbrothers via Getty Images)Stay for the music and celebrations
Juneteenth in Alexandria is as much a celebration of joy and survival as it is an occasion for solemnity.
On Juneteenth itself, the Office of Historic Alexandria will host a free concert with the Washington Revels Jubilee Voices from 1 to 3 p.m.
And just a few miles south, George Washington’s Mount Vernon is hosting a two-day Family Day program, Freedom Before Emancipation, from June 19 to 20.
What else to do in Alexandria
Alexandria is walkable, and Juneteenth weekend has plenty going on beyond the history sites.
Start outside at Waterfront Park, where two new public art installations are worth slowing down for. Artist Alicia Eggert’s “Now or Never” stops traffic with a striking structure that uses billboards to put the city and the river in conversation with each other.
A few blocks away, artist Sandy Williams IV’s temporary “Time and Place” installation uses 600 stone-cut “Time Rulers” to contemplate the 600 seconds (10 minutes) it takes to read the Declaration of Independence aloud.
The Torpedo Factory Art Center glows at dusk along Alexandria’s waterfront.
(DenisTangneyJr via Getty Images)
Moving along, the Torpedo Factory Art Center is a short walk from the waterfront and is home to one of the largest collection of publicly accessible working artist studios in the United States. There, you can watch painters, printmakers and sculptors at work, and if you’re inspired, browse and buy directly from the artists.
If making something yourself sounds appealing, Alexandria has options for hands-on activities, like watercolor and flower-pressing at Shop Made in VA, candle-making at AR Workshop, stained glass at Fiscus Glassworks, calligraphy and letterpress at Penny Post or a manuscript workshop at Old Town Books.
A mural on the brick wall outside Old Town Books in Alexandria declares the city’s identity as a “City of Readers.”
(Megan DeMatteo)
And for more history deep dives, take yourself on the recently launched self-guided Women’s History Walking Tour that interprets famous sites like Gadsby’s Tavern Museum through the eyes of the women who spent time there. Also included in the tour is a list of popular women-owned shops and restaurants along the route.
In the Del Ray neighborhood—Alexandria’s locals hangout—two new spots opened side by side and are already drawing crowds. Del Ray Dive is the can’t-miss pop-up bar, finished in classic dive-bar style with wood paneling and yes—a White Claw machine. Nearby, Continues Arcade has 50 vintage games like skee-ball and pinball, plus food from Iron Chef America alum Brian Lacayo and Top Chef’s Spike Mendelsohn. On June 18, the arcade is co-hosting a Grown-Up Book Fair with Old Town Books, a 21+ event where you can buy new reads, video games and drinks.
Rows of antique apothecary bottles line the shelves of the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, one of Alexandria’s most distinctive landmarks.
(Megan DeMatteo)
And if you’re still in town Sunday, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, one of Alexandria’s most unique attractions, is putting on an intriguing Poisons Tour that promises a one-hour look at which former herbs and tinctures could have once turned deadly at one of the country’s oldest apothecary shops. (It’s recommended for adults, for obvious reasons.)
June is also Pride Month, and Alexandria has ways to celebrate. Grab oysters at Hank’s Oyster Bar, everyone’s favorite queer-owned seafood establishment, and then browse the shelves at Friends to Lovers, a queer-owned independent bookstore that’s become a neighborhood pillar since opening in Old Town.
Alexandria’s Black history is defined by generations of residents who have championed and preserved stories of achievement, resilience and freedom. Juneteenth weekend is the perfect time to experience that heritage firsthand.
Plan your trip at visitalexandria.com.
Disclosure: Visit Alexandria previously hosted Megan DeMatteo on a solo press trip to experience and learn about the destination. Hosting organizations do not review or approve articles before publication. All observations reflect the author’s independent review.
How this was made: AI assisted with structure, formatting, interview transcription and metadata. All reporting, product testing, research, interviews, fact-checking, writing and editing was done by Megan DeMatteo, an independent writer and editor who, like many solo creators, handles the full workload of a traditional newsroom team.
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