By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Protests over police violence and racial injustice have gripped the nation and the world, including Bowling Green.
Three weeks ago, protestors gathered on Wooster Green to express rage about the treatment of African Americans. A week later a march ended at the space across from the police station with protestors kneeling silently in remembrance of George Floyd, the Black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Saturday it was a time for celebration as Bowling Green hosted its first Juneteenth observance.
The celebration brought to the fore African American music, crafts, and business.
Coniyah McKinney, who directs the Voices at BGSU, started the festivities by consecrating the ground with water in an ancient Yoruba ritual.
Juneteenth, June 19, marks the day in 1865 when enslaved Americans in Texas learned they’d been freed.
Holding his son, Chayim, Arron Lawrence said it was nice to see people out marking the day though “it’s sad that it took the situation it did to bring it about.”
The day, he said, was about celebrating life, unity, and freedom.
Those themes run through the Negro Spirituals that are the core of Voices’ repertoire.
“We’re telling the stories of our ancestors,” said Breanna Burnette, a member of the student choir. These were the anthems they sang “when they had nowhere else to turn.”
The spirituals connect the singers and listeners to the emotions of people who lived before even the first Juneteenth.
McKinney said he selected the numbers to capture a range of emotions. “This is what the slaves were feeling at the time,” McKinney said. And those feelings were relevant today.
The Voices performed “The Battle of Jericho,” “I Want Jesus To Walk with Me,” and “My God is a Rock.”
Explicitly religious, they are “coded songs,” McKinney said. Each spiritual is rich with hidden meanings that also spoke to the earthly aspirations of their creators.
Burnette said she appreciated Bowling Green hosting the celebration. It helps with inclusion and making African Americans like herself “feel more welcome in the community we live in.”
The event was organized by Anthony King, P.J. Chambers and Atonn Smeltzer.
King said the turnout of about 200 people exceeded his “wildest dreams.”
“I’m just happy everyone was able to come out and celebrate Black life and Black culture and embrace being Black.”
This was “a healing process.”
“We’re doing this in love to show that we are a voice too,” Chambers said.
They agreed there was more to come. “We’re nowhere near done,” Chambers said. “There’s so much to be done. As long as we keep can keep coming out as a community and attacking these social inequalities, one by one, we can keep going and building and making this world a smoother place for everybody.”
The celebration also offered a place for Black-owned businesses to show their wares.
Tiffany McKenzie, who owns Five Star Quality Cleaning Service, said the event gave her a chance to introduce her business to new people. It gave her license to approach strangers and present them with her card.
Nearby artist Shai Cooper silently drew a portrait of George Floyd, a reminder of the turmoil that has gripped the world.
Sheila Brown was selling masks. She said she was excited that Juneteenth was finally getting attention outside the African American community.
States such as West Virginia were making it an official holiday as it has been in Texas.
Juneteenth is a holiday with a serious message as it reflects on the ramifications of racial injustice – police brutality, income disparity, and unemployment, she said.
Mayor Mike Aspacher said he was pleased with the efforts of the organizers to provide “an opportunity to come together as a community to get to know about Black culture.”
He noted that many of the attendees were wearing masks. “I hope everyone stays safe.”
The celebration ended with the Voices back on stage.
McKinney recalled that the day commemorated when the last enslaved people learned they’d been freed two and half years before by the Emancipation Proclamation.
“We’re still fighting for freedom, for equality,” he said.
Then he cued the final number of the evening, showing again the relevance of the old spirituals. The Voices entoned “I’ll Never Turn Back No More.”
Then when King bid the crowd farewell, he reminded them, that if they were heading home alone to make sure they called someone to let them know they had arrived safely.
