Missouri cuts funding for KC Juneteenth celebration, ‘another slap in the face.’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed a $100,000 state budget line for JuneteenthKC.
- The funding cut removes 50–60% of JuneteenthKC’s operating budget, organizers say.
- Organizers say they will "lean hard" on community partners to offset lost funds.
Organizers of Kansas City’s Juneteenth celebration wrapped up their annual festival a few weeks ago, and now they’re left scrambling for new funding after Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed state funding for the event.
Kansas City hosts the largest Juneteenth celebration in the state, commemorating the moment when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned of their freedom.
Rep. Mike Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat who represents the district where the festival takes place, said the cut of such a small budget item “makes no sense” in the context of an over $50 billion budget.
“As the chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, I looked at this as another slap in the face of the Republican Party, and by our governor,” Johnson said.
The cut in state funding accounts for 50-60% of the organization’s budget, according to JuneteenthKC program director Makeda Peterson, whose father, Horace M. Peterson III, launched the annual celebration in 1980.
“We’re definitely shocked and really disappointed,” Peterson said. “It’ll significantly hurt the Juneteenth celebrations here in Kansas City.”
In a veto message, Kehoe said the state only intended to fund the program last year “with the intention that it was a one-time investment.”
But Peterson said that the cut came as a surprise to her, and that the state has contributed to the event the past five years through the Missouri Arts Council and the Department of Tourism.
“We’ve been getting assistance through the state for more than a year, so that’s news to us,” Peterson said. “The level of it did increase over the last two years, which kind of allowed the growth and expansion of the services we’ve been able to offer, but we’ve definitely been getting that support for a while.”
The $100,000 budget line Kehoe cut was already significantly lower than the $250,000 the state contributed for fiscal year 2026, which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
The 2026 festival included live entertainment, dozens of vendors, public health services, a scavenger hunt, a cultural parade, a beauty pageant and a live performance by the musical artist Common.
Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat who championed the state funding of JuneteenthKC, said she was “hurt” that the governor chose to cut funding that brings tourism to her district.
“I believe tourism, especially in the 18th and Vine district, is very crucial not only to Kansas City, but also to Missouri as a whole. So it does hurt me, but I also understand that we are really in a budget crunch,” Washington said.
In total, Kehoe cut or restricted $493 million from the Missouri budget, as Missouri approaches a grim financial outlook in the coming years.
Kansas City Councilwoman Melissa Robinson said she wasn’t surprised by the cut, and tied the issue to national politics and what she views as a backtracking on support for Black history.
An executive order from the Trump administration demanded that the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture deemphasize slavery and oppression, she said.
“Anything that has to do with people of color and women seems to be not in the top priorities,” Robinson said.
Alvin Brooks, a longtime civil rights activist and former Kansas City council member, said Missouri plays an important role in Black American history and that there needs to be continued education on American history.
“You can’t rewrite history, history has to be told. And the more it’s told, the more we respect each other,” Brooks said. “And as you hide it somewhere along the way, it’s gonna come back and bite you.”
Without state support, Peterson said it’ll be difficult to offer the same level of free and accessible programming. Peterson said they’ll have to “lean hard” on community partners to mitigate lost funding.
