If Missouri honors freedom, why cut Juneteenth and human trafficking budgets? | Williams
Kansas City saw its biggest Juneteenth celebration ever this year, as the event marked its 15th anniversary with more than 200 vendors, thousands of visitors and hip-hop artist Common headlining the entertainment.
Then, Republican Missouri lawmakers who control the General Assembly and governor’s office cut the festival’s funding. They also cut grants allocated to prevent human trafficking in the state.
Ironic? I think so, given the historical parallels between chattel slavery and modern human exploitation, but we can get to the latter later.
Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed nearly $53 million from the state’s more than $50 billion budget on Tuesday, including $100,000 for Juneteenth Kansas City — more than half the event’s annual budget.
While that is a lot of money for an organization to lose out on, it certainly won’t mean the end of Juneteenth celebrations here. It won’t even stop Juneteenth from getting bigger each year. But the announcement did “knock the wind out of our sails,” even if just for a moment, JuneteethKC Program Director Makeda Peterson told me on Wednesday. By then, though, the organization was already making phone calls, looking for local funding elsewhere to cover the loss.
“It’s disappointing that the governor has chosen to cut multiple tourism events throughout the state,“ said state Sen. Barbara Washington, adding that “It is even more deeply disappointing” to see the cut since Kansas City Juneteenth — which celebrates African American independence from slavery in this country — is the largest in the state.
State Rep. Mike Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat who represents the district where the festival takes place, told The Star that, “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,”
Washington, a Democrat from Kansas City, has pushed to get state funding for “celebrations during the month of June commemorating the emancipation of black slaves in the United States” every year that she has been in the Missouri Senate. For the last five years, Kansas City has received state dollars for its event.
Each of the last two fiscal years, JuneteenthKC has received $250,000 from the state. And in fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30, it was the only Juneteenth event to receive state financial support.
WWI Museum money slashed
I’m disappointed Kansas City’s Juneteenth won’t get state funds for its 2027 celebration.
That it is a push every year for lawmakers to secure money for this significant community event celebrating our history and culture is a bit disturbing to me — but not surprising in Missouri, where Kehoe signed an executive order barring state agencies from using public funds for diversity programs, and from considering diversity in state hiring. And, let’s not forget, that the University of Missouri, the state’s flagship school, defunded Black and other minority student governing organizations this year.
That said, and this may be an unpopular position, but if the governor is vetoing tens of millions from the state budget, you can bet there are probably a lot of dollars being cut that would have far more of a negative impact on the people of our state than cuts to the replaceable funds for Juneteenth.
In a statement released about the need for budget cuts, Kehoe wrote: “State government doesn’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem, and continuing to spend faster than we grow our economy is not a sustainable path forward.”
Star political reporters and I have been combing through the four-page list of Kehoe’s budget vetoes, and at first glance, I noticed another Kansas City tourism cut: $500,000 from the National WWI Museum and Memorial, which has received more than $17 million in state support over the past three years. I noticed $1 million cut to fentanyl testing and $3 million from recovery community centers.
And then I saw that Kehoe vetoed the issuance of a $150,000 grant to prevent human trafficking. Wait, what?
Human trafficking grant cut
The proposed appropriation was administered by the Missouri Department of Social Services. The funding flowed through Area Resources for Community and Human Services or ARCHS, an umbrella agency supporting community partners that improve the quality of life for St. Louis residents who need help.
The money went to training activities provided by Gateway Alliance Against Human Trafficking.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone anywhere would cut funding that could help prevent human trafficking, especially in Missouri, which ranks among the worst states in the nation, appearing in the Top 5 for cases per capita in 2026.
To me, it doesn’t matter how much money the state may already contribute to the battle against human trafficking. We can never spend too much fighting this horror. Taking any money away from what should be a leading statewide cause is intolerable in my book.
And the connection between Juneteenth and human trafficking is not lost on me. Juneteenth is the celebration of the freeing of Black enslaved people, and human trafficking is the organized abduction, transport, buying, selling and forced exploitation of people. Slavery of Black people for profit was this country’s nationally sanctioned human trafficking.
So yeah, I think we should be adding money, not cutting money for efforts to prevent an evil most often perpetrated against women and children. Even in the tightest of budget times, some things should be off-limits for cutting. Fighting human trafficking should be one of those things.
Let’s face it, taking money away from human trafficking prevention is a lot more egregious than not funding Juneteenth celebrations.
And while I see the parallel, I make that statement because until about 2021, most people in this state who are not African American probably didn’t even know there was a Juneteenth — and yet Black Missourians had been celebrating the day for decades with barbecues, picnics, parades and community celebrations.
And that will not change, with or without state support.
One of the main points of Black pride often pointed to during Juneteenth is how our Black ancestors endured, survived and overcame every obstacle thrust before them. And that hasn’t changed in 2026 either.
There will be a Juneteenth celebration in 2027, and Kansas City — and I mean all of Kansas City, because the end of slavery is something we should all celebrate — will support it. This includes businesses and philanthropists. Because we can and we should.
