Commemorating Juneteenth with a Cookoff

Pork tenderloin, the pork entry by one team, was absolutely superior.

What event should be held to commemorate Juneteenth? Why not something that brings everyone together like a barbecue cookoff? That is exactly what Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, NC did. 

The college’s commemoration also included music, spoken word, and other activities. The main attraction was a campus cookoff, which follows a long tradition of including food events as the commemoration of Juneteenth spread even before today when it officially became a federal holiday. 

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered — when U.S. soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Blacks in Galveston, Texas. On that date, Gen. Gordon Granger issued a general order that proclaimed freedom for the enslaved in Texas. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed anyone enslaved in most areas of the Confederacy almost 2½ years earlier, but the proclamation’s decree was not being upheld in the Galveston and other areas of Texas. 

This pulled pork was one of the top entries.

For the cookoff, four teams signed up to compete in three categories: chicken, beef, and pork. Each entry was judged in the areas of appearance, taste/flavor, tenderness, and texture by a group of four judges.

This chicken entry came complete with Texas toast and grilled zucchini.

I was fortunate to be invited to the cookoff as a judge. The three other judges were the college president, a member of the faculty, and a member of the staff. We were each impressed with the top-quality entries that the teams prepared and submitted. 

A team leader slices tenderloin just off the cooker to prepare the pork entry.

The leader of each team was a member of the college’s faculty or staff and was assisted by coworkers. Although the competition was limited to college personnel, their barbecue was as superior as that prepared by competitive cooking teams, and the college’s teams were equally serious about winning. 

Another team leader completes the cooking while it looks like he has enough supervisors.

The cooking teams and organizers had not been involved in a cookoff before. However, the rules prepared for the competition were very complete, and the procedures (e.g., scoring, judging, meat turn-in) were typical of competitive events. 

College employees gather under a picnic shelter to enjoy samples of some of the entries.

Less than five hours after the cookoff had ended, Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday on June 19 every year and will be known as Juneteenth National Independence Day to commemorate the end of slavery in 1865. What a great day today was for barbecue fans, the college, and the country.

The first entry required a lot of concentration. Photo by Laura Hill.