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News :: Civil & Human Rights |
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Juneteenth: An Obscure Texas Celebration Makes Its Way Across the U.S. |
Current rating: 0 |
by Julia Moskin
(No verified email address) |
17 Jun 2004
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Juneteenth (June 19th) celebrations range from backyard picnics to more formal events. |
Most gatherings are decidedly upbeat, but the sobering reason for the holiday has also been part of Juneteenth's growth. Dr. Ronald Myers, the leader of a movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, says June 19 should be an annual remembrance of the horrors of slavery.
"We never got our apology, so we need this holiday to remind us that we must not forget," said Dr. Myers, who spoke yesterday at a Juneteenth event at the Capitol led by Representative Danny K. Davis, Democrat of Illinois.
On Wednesday, the New York Legislature passed a bill to make Juneteenth an official, if ceremonial, state holiday, joining 13 other states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Alaska, California and Texas.
Juneteenth celebrations range from backyard picnics to more formal events. In Hartford, the Wadsworth Atheneum art museum will open its 13th Juneteenth celebration with a black-tie gala on Friday night; in Guam, Anderson Air Force Base will celebrate with a dominoes tournament and gospel concert.
Monique Wells, a Houston native, organizes an annual Juneteenth picnic in Paris. "The first year, no one but me had even heard of Juneteenth," Ms. Wells said. "But everybody likes it. There's nothing sad about Juneteenth."
The holiday has taken root even in communities with relatively tiny black populations, like Portland and Chandler, Ariz., where a Miss Juneteenth pageant will be held Friday. Arizona's population is less than 4 percent black, but Lavon Woods, a pageant organizer, said: "There are always lots of white people who come. We don't have too many parties here as good as Juneteenth."
Alison Hood, who is white, said that as a girl growing up in Austin, Tex., she always envied the black children who went to big barbecue picnics and drank "red soda water" - strawberry soda, a Juneteenth tradition. Now, she says, she goes to the Austin picnic every year.
Blacks welcome the integration of the holiday.
"You'd think the end of slavery would be a holiday for all Americans," said Wade Woods, a member of the committee for Juneteenth in San Francisco, often cited as the oldest civic celebration outside the Southwest; Texas' neighboring states also have extensive celebrations. In the 1950's, Mr. Woods said, a transplanted Texan named Wesley Johnson put Juneteenth on the map there by annually donning a ten-gallon hat and riding a white horse down Fillmore Street - then the main drag of the black neighborhood.
This year, San Francisco's 54th Juneteenth event, which includes a posse of black cowboys, is expected to draw about 50,000 spectators.
Juneteenth has been a state holiday in Texas since 1980, and the political issues it raised then are now on the national stage. Some Texas lawmakers objected to the holiday as a glorification of black ignorance; others claimed there were already occasions enough on the calendar to recognize the African-American experience, including Emancipation Day, celebrated on Jan. 1, the day Lincoln's proclamation went into effect.
And with Martin Luther King's Birthday established as an official forum for discussions of race, some still question the need for "another" black holiday, Mr. Herring said.
"But this is our day to be happy," he said. "I'm glad as hell that the U.S. got its freedom on July Fourth, but were my ancestors free that day? I don't think so."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com |
See also:
http://www.juneteenth.com/
http://www.elecvillage.com/juneteen.htm
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Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
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Does Anyone Know? |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Jun 2004
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Are there any local Juneteenth celebrations scheduled? UC IMC would be glad to post info about them. Just post it like a story and we'll be glad to make it into a feature.
With Bloomsday and the weekly Farmers Market at Lincoln Square in Urbana, this Saturday could turn into a real festival of the diverse ethnicities in our community. |
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Re: Juneteenth: An Obscure Texas Celebration Makes Its Way Across the U.S. |
by Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
myersfound (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
26 Jun 2004
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Your article did not refer your readers to the only web site with information on the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign - www.Juneteenth.us. You can also find some good information on www.19thofJune.com.
"DOC"
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC) |
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Re: Juneteenth: An Obscure Texas Celebration Makes Its Way Across the U.S. |
by Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
MyersFound (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
16 Oct 2005
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The official web site for the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign is www.Juneteenth.us. Any accurate information about the effort to make Juneteenth a National Holiday Observance can only be found at www.Juneteenth.us or www.19thofJune.com.
Together we will see Juneteenth became a National Holiday in America! |
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Re: Juneteenth: An Obscure Texas Celebration Makes Its Way Across the U.S. |
by www.Juneteenth.us
MyersFound (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
16 Oct 2005
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Go to www.Juneteenth.us or www.19thofJune.com for information on the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign. |
