By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
As Anthony King looked out over Wooster Green on Saturday, he saw exactly what he was hoping for – a diverse group of people celebrating Juneteenth with moving music, good food, and a sense of joy.
“This is a celebration of the freedom that all Americans experience, especially Black Americans on June 19, 1865,” said King, head of the Bowling Green organization BRAVE (Black Rights, Activism, Visibility and Equity.)
Now a national holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the day when word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached enslaved people in Texas.
In these times of instant communication – and miscommunication – it’s difficult to fathom that it took nearly two and a half years for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach people in Galveston, Texas.
This was the fifth annual Juneteenth celebration on Wooster Green – bringing together a blend of students and townspeople.
“We’re excited to continue to provide a platform to experience our culture, with music and food,” King said.
In the afternoon, organizers were hoping that attendance would pick up in the evening, as the good weather, music, food and children’s activities continued.
“We’re a prayerful organization. I’m seeing a lot of lovely faces,” said Najwa Matthews, a member of BRAVE and one of the planners behind Saturday’s event.
More important than attendance numbers was the awareness and joy created by the Juneteenth recognition, Matthews said.
“I’m hoping people have a feeling of freedom, and that they have a feeling of empowerment. And honestly, a feeling of joy,” she said.
Leo Bussdieker was definitely feeling the joy as he climbed all around the bouncy obstacle course, as his mother Ashley Sominski watched.
“We just wanted to stop by and support this,” Sominski, of Bowling Green, said.
Also wanting to support the day were John and Alice Calderonello, of Bowling Green, who come every year to the event.
“It’s an important holiday,” Alice said. “There is no American history if you leave the African Americans out of it.”
“We like the music, and we just want to support it,” John said, as he and his wife sat on the grass listening to the musicians on stage.
Waiting for their order at a food truck, Catheree Tiller and Calvin Carter, of Elyria, shared their hopes for the day.
“We can learn to be more compassionate with each other, and get to know each other,” Tiller said.
“And just sit back and have fun,” Carter added.
The event featured Black-owned businesses selling their products ranging from skincare and jewelry. An art station was set up under tents for children and adults wanting to paint.
Live music on the stage offered genres like Christian, rhythm and blues, indie, and neo-soul by artists Mike Williams on Sax, Will Kellum, Jasmine Renee, Jon Torrence, and L.I.V.E Hightower.
Food trucks were set up on South Grove Street, with Fat Boyz by Al & Zoe serving hot wings and burgers, Stacks Chicken cooking up Caribbean cuisines, and Mustache Mike’s cooling people down with flavored Italian ice.
Three bouncy structures were blown up, yard games set up, and faces were painted to keep children entertained.
Ellie Boyle, a BRAVE member who helped organize Saturday’s event, said the annual Juneteenth celebration says a lot about Bowling Green.
“It shows BG is a community. There’s room for everybody,” Boyle said.
As Byron McClendon, from Michigan, sat on a park bench and listened to music, he talked about the feel of the day.
“There’s a real sense of being able to come together,” he said. And in those moments, if people become enlightened about Juneteenth, all the better.
“That’s when we were actually freed,” McClendon said. “We need to keep pushing its purpose to heighten everyone’s awareness.”
While the Emancipation Proclamation declared the slaves in Confederate territories free as of Jan. 1, 1863, it was two and a half years before many were actually freed.
Juneteenth marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to ensure that all enslaved people were freed.
The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, had established that all enslaved people in Confederate states in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
But in reality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t instantly free any enslaved people. The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not to slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control.
In Texas, slavery had continued as the state experienced no large-scale fighting or significant presence of Union troops. Many slave owners from outside Texas had moved there, as they viewed it as a safe haven for slavery.
After the war came to a close in the spring of 1865, U.S. General Gordon Granger’s arrival in Galveston that June signaled freedom for an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.
But still, emancipation didn’t happen overnight for all slaves. In some cases the slave owners withheld the information until after harvest season.
But for others, celebrations broke out among newly freed Black people, and Juneteenth was born. That December, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment.
So June 19 has a special meaning to many Americans, and has been celebrated by the African American community for more than 150 years.
The mission of BRAVE is to combat the oppression of Black Americans by opening channels to resources, education and opportunities through economic empowerment, community development and civic engagement-access. The organization also strives to create inclusive environments where Black people can freely embrace their culture as well as their identities.
