By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Surveying the lines of dancers doing the electric slide on Wooster Green Saturday , Ruth Leonard said it looked and felt like a family reunion.
That was the spirit that imbued Bowling Green’s second Juneteenth Celebration, sponsored by BRAVE – Black Rights, Activism, Visibility, Equity.
Leonard and her fellow Toledo based activist Julian Mack took on the role of on stage hosts once the music started in the late afternoon, and they kept participants active, initiating several line dances to get the celebrants on their feet between performers.
Juneteenth, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, first learned they’d been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier.
The event is a celebration of Black life and culture, said Shantaris Brown, a member of the organizing committee. She was also on hand selling her Unapologetic line of clothing, a name fitting the tone of the event.
This was a chance to promote Black culture, music, history, and business, she said. “It brings awareness to other people of our culture,” she said. “This brings them into our life for a day.”
The celebration drew several hundred people, young and old, many Black, but many of other races as well, over the course of the day.
Leonard, a middle school social studies teacher, and Mack, who donned a Black Live Matters flag as a cape in super hero style, led a chant affirming pride in Black identity. Mack called out: “I love being Black!”
They also quizzed people with several rounds of not so trivial Black history trivia questions.
First Black U.S. senator? (Hiram Revels)
First Black heavyweight champion of the world? (Jack Johnson)
First Black millionaire? (Madam C.J. Walker)
First Black entertainer to host a national TV show? (Nat King Cole)
The day itself was the answer to a future trivia question: When was Juneteenth first celebrated as a national holiday? June 19, 2021.
Shantaris Brown said she looks forward to having even more Juneteenth commemorations now that it has been nationally recognized.
“It really celebrates us with everything we’ve gone through and continue to go through,” said young Black entrepreneur Davonte Williams, who was selling his “Faith Is Enough” clothing line.
One of his customers, Denise Richardson, said “it’s great to see that we can all get along. It doesn’t need to be one race against the other. We have to support each other.”
Another of his customers, Isaiah Fox said he was impressed that an event in Bowling Green Ohio would draw visitors and businesses from large cities to participate in the Juneteenth celebration.
His friend Kayla Wise said that while having Juneteenth as a national holiday is welcomed she doubts it will make much change in the country.
Briana McGee, who was helping out in her roommate’s booth, said: “It’s great to see people come out” for the celebration. “I just think it’ll be more positive as the years go on.”
The holiday has been celebrated in the Black community, but it prominence more broadly increased during the civil disturbance over the killing of Black citizens by police.
BRAVE hosted a celebration last year, Bowling Green’s first. This year the festivities were expanded with more music and more Black-owned businesses showcasing their wares.
Brown said this was the first pop-up shop. She launched her Unapologetic brand to promote self-love in a time when so much on social media degrades people.
“I have low self-esteem, so I wanted it to help others like myself,” Brown said.
Indy McCross said she started her business, SunJay’s Care, because she couldn’t find the right products for her locks. So many hair care products are laced with chemicals, and she wanted natural, organic, and affordable beauty care products. So she developed her own and launched SunJay’s Care.
Despite the challenges of operating a business – “it’s hard; none of it is easy” – she sees herself running a business for the rest of her life.
Williams also has a long-term commitment to his business, which he runs in addition to working at Lourdes College. He’d like to expand it enough so he can contract out some of the work. He now prints all his own shirts using the skill he learned from YouTube.
The shirts are more than merchandise. They are “something that people wear on their chest that has meaning,” Williams said. “I just want people to have faith in whatever they believe.”
The music coming from the stage was full of those messages of love, faith, and resilience.
As he did last year, saxophonist Mike Williams opened the show with soulful wailing.
In addition to talent from the area, BRAVE booked singer, songwriter and guitarist Peter Collins.
With his high sweet voice and piquant jazz-influenced guitar work, he stilled the crowd sitting in the glow of a summer night. Once he started he flowed smoothly with little banter through a set of originals and covers, which he made sound like his own.
Closing his set he improvised a farewell to his audience. He wished them peace, joy, and “safety wherever you go.”
During their time on stage Leonard and Mack interjected calls for activism into their comments.
Leonard defended Critical Race Theory and teaching about racism in the country’s history against recent criticisms.
It was not about making Black students feel they are better than their White peers, Leonard said. It was about providing a fuller, more accurate view of history than the traditional view that supports white supremacy. A view that teaches, for example, about the New Deal, but doesn’t teach about the redlining of Black neighborhoods causing an erosion of property values.
“What it will do,” she said, “is articulate the truth of America’s past, the reality of the present, and the hope for the future.”
Leonard and Mack also urged people to register to vote. Leonard told them not to listen to those who said their vote doesn’t count. Leonard asked: “If it didn’t matter, why would they fight so hard to take it away?”
Black people would look those who oppose the fight for racial equity in the eye, Leonard said. “We’re going to feel that power. We’re not going anywhere. Now is the time we double down to make the change we want to see in the world.”
