Hartford marks Juneteenth with music, joy and a focus on history

Growing up in Bridgeport, Simone Hopwood never learned much in school about the liberation of African Americans beyond President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

Like many Americans, she was taught that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued Jan. 1, 1863, automatically freed all enslaved people.

But when Hopwood reached college, she did a “deep dive” into the complexities and contradictions of American history and learned about Juneteenth: June 19, 1865, when the last remaining enslaved men, women and children, living in Galveston, Texas, were finally freed.

“It’s really important that this day is finally recognized,” said Hopwood, 23, who studied social work at Central Connecticut State University and holds a master’s degree from Fordham University.

On Saturday, Hopwood and two friends from college joined a crowd of several hundred people near Bushnell Park for Hartford’s first Juneteenth celebration. The event featured music, dancing and speeches and was held on Trinity Street, where a colorful Black Lives Matter mural covers the pavement. At the Capitol nearby, a Juneteenth flag fluttered against the gold dome.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed into law a measure declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday, a moment that for many Black Americans signifies a long-overdue reckoning with history. The city of Hartford proclaimed Juneteenth a municipal holiday last year.

“This day celebrates equality and the fight for social justice that our ancestors have been [waging],” said T.J. Clark, the majority leader of the Hartford City Council.

Clark, 40, said he never heard about Juneteenth as a student in the Bloomfield schools. He first encountered it as a student at Virginia State University, a historically Black college, when a fellow member of the marching band who hailed from Texas educated him about the importance of the day.

“It still astounds me to this day that more people don’t know about it,” Clark said. “I love history, but this was something that was absent in my education.”

Clark brought his two sons, ages 9 and 10, to Saturday’s celebration “so they can get a life education about things like this,” he said.

Last year’s protests following the murder of George Floyd sparked a new emphasis on the history of systemic racism that pervades many American institutions. But it has also sparked a backlash, in Connecticut and around the nation, from some conservatives who object to the teaching of that history.

“It is so critical to know our history, especially for young people,” said Joelle Murchison, founder and principal of ExecMommyGroup, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting practice and the keynote speaker at Hartford’s Juneteenth celebration.

“It’s crucial for them to understand history, not just the sound bites that they were taught in the classroom because that doesn’t really give anyone a full understanding.”

Teaching that history doesn’t have to spark division, Murchison said. On the contrary, the lessons of the past help the nation heal from the trauma of racism. Connecticut’s legislative mandate to teach Black history in public school is part of that process, she said.

“It’s not a bad thing for us to learn about the painful moments of the past so that we don’t repeat them,” Murchison said. “And so we have a better concept around exactly what built this nation.’'

Simone Hopwood and her friends from Central Connecticut State University, Destiney Stackhouse and Lakea Saunders, said they, too, are hopeful.

“When I was in school, the only time they talk about that history is during Black history month,” said Stackhouse, who is 24 and graduated from CCSU. “But that was only scratching the surface. They put rose-colored glasses on the history of America.”

Daniela Altimari can be reached at dnaltimari@courant.com.