ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — African and Caribbean leaders in Ghana on Friday urged former slave-trading nations to issue apologies and reparations over the trafficking of enslaved Africans after a landmark U.N. resolution in March declaring it “the gravest crime against humanity.”
The “Next Steps” conference in the Ghanaian capital of Accra issued a declaration calling on countries involved in the Atlantic slave trade to “offer full, formal and unconditional apologies as a foundational step towards reconciliation, trust-building and reparatory justice.”
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President John Dramani Mahama lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
President John Dramani Mahama, center, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, right, and other dignitaries attend a wreath-laying ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, Paramount Chief of the Sefwi Anhwiaso Traditional Area and President of the National House of Chiefs, lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Dr. Julius Garvey, son of Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
President John Dramani Mahama lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, speaks with a delegate at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, attends the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
The U.N. resolution is non-binding but carries moral authority. Organizers said the Ghana conference was aimed at moving the reparations debate from recognition to concrete measures, including moves to require compensation under international law.
About 12 million Africans were forcefully taken by traders from European nations from the 16th to the 19th century and enslaved on plantations that built wealth at the price of misery.
Ghana President John Dramani Mahama said the U.N. resolution had created a new opportunity for meaningful engagement on reparations. He said the effects of slavery continue to be felt across Africa, the Caribbean, and the wider African diaspora.
“We’re here because recognition creates responsibility, and because the enduring consequences of this history continue to demand thoughtful, coordinated, and sustained international engagement,” Mahama told delegates from more than 80 countries.
At a reparations summit in Ghana in 2023, participants proposed establishing a Global Reparation Fund, though they did not clarify how it would operate.
Positions on reparations are mixed in countries that would contribute.
For example, residents of the United States view the prospect of reparations mostly negatively. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2021 found that only about three in 10 U.S. adults said descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid in some way, such as being given land or money.
Some activists say reparations should include direct financial payments, but also developmental aid for countries and the return of colonized resource s.
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McMakin contributed from Dakar, Senegal
President John Dramani Mahama lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
President John Dramani Mahama, center, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, right, and other dignitaries attend a wreath-laying ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, Paramount Chief of the Sefwi Anhwiaso Traditional Area and President of the National House of Chiefs, lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Dr. Julius Garvey, son of Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
President John Dramani Mahama lays a wreath in a ceremony to honor victims of the transatlantic slave trade at Christiansborg Castle during a Juneteenth commemoration ceremony in Accra, Ghana, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, speaks with a delegate at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, attends the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addresses delegates at the opening of the Slavery Reparations Conference in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Reuben Ekow Quansah)
DALLAS (AP) — As people gather across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, former President Barack Obama's presidential center will open its doors to the public for the first time.
Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center for the nation's first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It's the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.
The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Texas at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state's enslaved people were free with “absolute equality” 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in the South.
“Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of Liberty.”
Several days of events have been planned for the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center, including a dedication ceremony held Thursday.
The center's public opening also arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy and liberation. The nation is grappling with deepening political division and renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political representation in Congress.
The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by former first lady Michelle Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library.
In addition to spaces designed to bring people together, the campus that's expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually aims to also encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director, has said they're “inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large.”
The museum lets visitors experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House.
This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama's vice president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts.
The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day that U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas port city of Galveston with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3.
As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a promise of freedom with a Union victory.
“It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said.
About six months after Granger's arrival in Galveston, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified.
Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth, is celebrating with a daylong gathering at a park with music and fireworks, a parade and a worship service in a historic Black church. In nearby Houston, there will be a lineup of musical artists and a domino tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of formerly enslaved men.
Other events across the U.S. over the long weekend include a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a festival on Martha’s Vineyard.
Several cities across the U.S. will host walks named for Opal Lee, the Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Participants will walk 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year.
Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate, and by the 1880s, “it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said.
“They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and institution-building,” he added.
Corey D. B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school, said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially amid efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to undermine the retelling of Black history.
“I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s experiment with democracy,” Walker said.
People participate in Juneteenth celebrations on Ball Avenue in Galveston, Texas, on Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
Members of the SHINE Muwasi women's African drum circle perform during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Drummers perform during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A person, who declined to give his name, stands for a photo during a Juneteenth celebration in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Former President Barack Obama holds a baby as he and First Lady Michelle Obama greet community members in the Hope and Change lobby before they walk through the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)
Roz Ridgeway, 7, a rising second-grader at Putney, Vt., Central School, rakes out a garden bed at the school as part of the school's Community Schools Initiative on Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Kristopher Radder /The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Ian Noyes, 8, a rising third-grader at Putney, Vt., Central School, rakes out a garden bed outside the Putney General Store as part of the school's Community Schools Initiative on Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Kristopher Radder /The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Lena Quintal, 10, a rising sixth-grader at Putney, Vt., Central School, shovels rocks into a wheelbarrow with other students as part of the school's Community Schools Initiative on Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Kristopher Radder /The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Former President Barack Obama, left, and former first lady Michelle Obama read to school children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Barack Obama gives a high-five during a book reading with children on opening day of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Chicago. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Barack Obama speaks during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden, from left, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pose for a photo ahead of the dedication ceremony at the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)
FILE - People on motorcycles participate in the 31st annual Juneteenth celebration, June 15, 2024, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
FILE - People participate during a Juneteenth parade, June 19, 2025, in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
FILE - Drummers form a circle around Sika Dwimfo, better known as the, "Godfather of Leimert Park," during the neighborhood's Juneteenth celebration, June 19, 2024, at Leimert Park in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
