Black History Month poster with light orange background and a wavy rainbow of red, green black and yellow stripes in bottom right third of the design.

In celebration of 2023 Black History Month, the Santa Barbara County Black/African-American community will mark the historical achievements Black/African Americans have made for our region and the nation.

Juneteenth Santa Barbara (JSB) brings together Black/African-American-led organizations to continue the tradition of providing Black History Month (BHM) events in February and year-round in Santa Barbara County. 

The 2023 theme of Black Resistance tells the story of how this community resists, rises above, and thrives, despite historical and continued oppression. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History states: 

“Black people have had to consistently push the United States to live up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all … Black people have sought ways to nurture and protect Black lives and for the autonomy of their physical and intellectual bodies through armed resistance, voluntary emigration, nonviolence, education, literature, sports, media, and legislation/politics. Black-led institutions and affiliations have lobbied, litigated, legislated, protested, and succeeded.”

Locally, there has been an ongoing effort led by JSB that brings Black/African-American-led organizations together for continued communication and connection. An outcome of this five-year effort is coordinating Black/African-American events to uplift the joy, accomplishments, challenges and successes of local Black/African-American individuals.

“We have a vibrant community of passionate and hard-working Black/African-Americans locally, who, thanks to our ancestors and elders, have created a culture to create services needed to support all of our communities,” said Jordan Killebrew, co-founder of Juneteenth SB.

“Our goal, just like our annual Juneteenth event, is to bring our community together and showcase their hard work, helping to amplify their support services and their great accomplishments locally, ” Killebrew said.

Events in 2023 will be in person and online. Santa Barbara County community organizations providing events include Coffee with a Black Guy, Endowment for Youth Community, Gateway Educational Services, Healing Justice Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Black Culture House, Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Santa Barbara County Black Student Unions, UCSB Arts & Lectures, UCSB Multicultural Center, NAACP Santa Barbara, and NAACP Santa Maria-Lompoc.

View the calendar of events at JuneteenthSB.org.

Santa Barbara County, as well as cities and school boards within in the county, have scheduled official acknowledgments of Black History Month in February, including the following:

  • City of Carpinteria Proclamation: January 23 – view here
  • Santa Barbara Unified School District Resolution: Jan. 24 – view here
  • City of Santa Barbara Proclamation: Feb. 7 – view here
  • County of Santa Barbara Resolution: Feb. 7 – view here
  • City of Buellton Proclamation: TBD – view here
  • City of Lompoc Proclamation: TBD – view here
  • City of Goleta Proclamation: TBD – view here
  • City of Santa Maria Proclamation: TBD – more information