Juneteenth event lawsuit filed in SC city with celebration banners depicting white people
The organization shut out from holding a Juneteenth event at the Peace Center in Greenville has sued the performing arts venue for breach of contract.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday. It alleges that community activist Bruce Wilson and Derek Quarles had a verbal agreement since 2021 with the Peace Center to exclusively stage Juneteenth celebrations at the TD Stage, an outdoor arena on the grounds of the downtown venue.
They sponsored a Juneteenth event in 2020, which the lawsuit says was free and successful, drawing 1,000 people. Events were held in 2021 and 2022 in conjunction with the Peace Center, which the lawsuit says handled all aspects of the entertainment.
In the months afterward, Wilson and his colleagues could not reach anyone from the Peace Center to begin planning for 2023, the lawsuit says.
In January, Wilson learned that the Peace Center would be the site of a Juneteenth event sponsored by another organization, which the lawsuit does not mention by name.
Juneteenth GVL has scheduled a week-long event featuring food, family and wellness events, concerts, seminars and art exhibits, beginning June 17 centered at the Peace Center. A gala is planned for the night before at the Greenville Convention Center.
Juneteenth GVL, meanwhile, has been criticized for erecting banners in downtown Greenville that show people of different races. The ones showing a white man and white woman were the main focus of complaints. Wilson called them “whitewashing” the event.
Juneteenth has been a federal holiday since 2021 and commemorates the freeing of enslaved African Americans after the Civil War.
Within days of the backlash over the banners, Juneteenth GVL organizers apologized for them and took down all the banners and replaced them with generic banners about the event.
Rueben Hays, founder of Juneteenth GVL, said in a statement,“This error was an attempt at uniting all of Greenville and thereby a slight oversight on one individual’s part that prevented us from fully embracing the rich potential and celebrating the depth of black culture through the message and meaning of Juneteenth.”
Megan Reigel, chief executive officer at the Peace Center, could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks for damages amounting to $25,000 a year. It does not say for how many years.
