Community gathers to celebrate Juneteenth in Salem
Salem residents gathered at the Salem-Keizer NAACP Juneteenth event on Sunday to celebrate the holiday and encourage the community to continue working together. It is the first time the Salem-Keizer NAACP branch hosted an in-person Juneteenth celebration after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is also the first year that Juneteenth has been officially recognized as a state holiday after Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 2168.
The date was made a federal holiday in 2021. The holiday originated from Galveston, Texas, when Union troops marched into the city on June 19, 1865, and Union General Gordon Granger delivered the news that President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior, requiring the immediate freedom of more than 250,000 slaves in Texas.
"Juneteenth was a step forward and a marker of hope, one we must continue to build upon," said Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, about the bill. "This official holiday will recognize that the people of Oregon, despite our past, can take the veil of ignorance away, and each year chooses to have hope — on Juneteenth and every day thereafter.”
From 3 to 7 p.m., the branch hosted a community block party featuring Black-owned businesses, the Seed of Faith Praise Team, games, the Urban League of Portland, Juneteenth Jeopardy, the Salem-Keizer Interfaith Network and the Salem Police Department.
Mayor-elect and Councilmember Chris Hoy announced and read the proclamation officially recognizing June 19 as Juneteenth Independence Day in Salem at the event alongside Reginald Richardson, Sr. and Nkenge Harmon Johnson, President of the Urban League of Portland.
The event also recognized this year's Juneteenth essay contest winners. The essay contest asked students to answer what Booker T. Washington would say about the country's progress with race and equality if he were alive today. The winners were Gurnaaj Kaur from Pringle Elementary; Josephine Zimbelman at Claggett Middle School; and Jaida Carodine, a student at Sprague High School.
Dr. Irvin M. Brown, Education Chair at SKNAACP, said the entire board has been very excited to put together the first celebration in a couple of years. It is also the first with a new chapter president, Dr. Reginald Richardson, Sr.
Although there have been other Juneteenth celebrations in the past, this celebration feels different, Brown said.
"It feels different because we are coming out of what 2020 meant for a lot of us with the Black Lives Matter movement," Brown said.
Brown added that the loss of life including the recent "horrific killings" in Buffalo and in Uvalde means it felt like a good time to bring people together.
"Just to remind ourselves, 'Hey, we are in this together,'" he said.
At the event, Pastor Phillip Bryant, youth pastor at Seed of Faith, sang "You Make Me Happy." He chose the gospel song in hopes that others would be reminded that despite the pandemic and other issues, there are ways to find peace and happiness through it all, Bryant said.
"I wanted to bring that energy here," he added.
As Education Chair and a former teacher and high school administrator, Brown said he was looking forward to having conversations on Sunday about Juneteenth but also about Oregon's history with race.
"There's not a pretty history. It is nothing to brag about and a lot of people are still shocked to know that the state that they were born and raised in has a very, very painful history when it comes to redlining, to Vanport, to Sundown laws," Brown said. "Oregon has just a really shameful history when it comes to how it has treated not only African Black Americans, but also just people of color in general."
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Johnson said she has celebrated the holiday in her family for many years but recognized that it might be the first year celebrating for many others. While Juneteenth is a time for celebration it is also a time for reflection, she said.
Reginald Richardson Jr., Pastor of the Your Bible Speaks Community Seventh-day Adventist Church, also encouraged the community to remain cognizant of the holiday's purpose during a speech. Juneteenth has no purpose if people don't show up to make a difference in the community, Richardson said. As the holiday is recognized as a federal holiday and as it is commercialized, Richardson warned that Juneteenth cannot become just another holiday.
"If we simply turn it into another holiday, we find ourselves patronizing and belittling the work that has gone forward for many years," he said.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Community gathers to celebrate Juneteenth in Salem
