Kansas City celebrates Juneteenth festival, remembering history and hoping for progress

From a stage near Woodland Avenue and East Truman Road, a group of spectators listened intently to the young voices of the Kansas City Girls Choir and Kansas City Boys Choir.

“We shall overco-o-ome. We shall overco-o–ome. We shall overcome some-day.”

The notes of the old Civil Rights Movement anthem drifted over tents and food trucks as the crowd erupted in cheers.

Hundreds filled the streets of the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District Saturday for the 12th annual Juneteenth KC Heritage Festival. Juneteenth marks the occasion in 1865 months after the Civil War when Black enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were informed that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the order which freed enslaved people in the states that joined the Confederacy. The passage of the 13th Amendment formally ended slavery in December 1865.

The holiday has been celebrated since the 19th century, but it officially became a federal holiday in 2021 after years of advocacy by Black leaders.

While Juneteenth takes place on June 19, the entire month has been filled with a roster of events, including art exhibits, brunch with the mayor and a parade weeks earlier.

Juneteenth celebrations were brought to Kansas City in the ‘80s by Horace Peterson III, founder of the Black Archives of Mid-America, according to Juneteenth KC, the organization that hosted the event.

At the festival, Black business owners, artists and musicians shared their goods and talents with hundreds of attendees.

The event, running from noon to 10 p.m., was more than just a time of concerts, pony rides and face painting. Iyshia Sims, a vendor at the event and owner of ‘Amir’acle Body Butters & More described the day as time of community, remembrance and “Black joy,” she said.

Sims sold her body care products next to over 200 Black-owned businesses.

“I walk around here, and it’s like, ‘Look at us,’” she said. “I’m just so proud of all of us.”

Streams of people flowed in and out of the American Jazz Museum and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, both of which are located in the district and honor Black trailblazers like Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when racist Jim Crow laws were still in effect throughout much of the country.

By the front doors, a man in an all white suit with a pink shirt underneath smiled and waved at the people shuffling in. His name tag declared him “the mayor” of the district.

It’s his nickname, 74-year-old Ronnie Medlock explained, joking that he’s not responsible for the potholes.

Medlock has lived on Vine Street for around 20 years, and he’s always been good at bringing people in the neighborhood together. So, events like these make him smile.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful time,” he said.

Medlock added that, despite the day’s positive note, he feels the city has a ways to go before everyone has a mutual respect for one another. Violence and hate still seem to be a present threat in the community.

He has seen glimpses of progress in his 35 years in Kansas City, though he believes the community became less unified during the pandemic. We will still get there, he said.

“It’s going to take time for people to come together and unite — start looking out for each other and appreciating each other,” Medlock said. “In due time.”

Micaela Pollard attended the festival wearing a shirt that read “Juneteenth — because my ancestors weren’t free in 1776.” She feels events like these are important for all Kansas Citians to attend so the entire city is connected with, and listening to, the Black community.

“We are here,” she said. “We can offer good things to the city. Just give us the opportunity and chance to do so.”

Seeing the number of people attending the festival, enjoying each other’s company, though, is reassuring to Pollard.

“It gives me hope for the city and the country,” Pollard said.

Patrons browse art and enjoy the food while wearing red and green: the colors of the Pan-African flag. Some don the garbs of their ancestors.

Back on stage, the choir continued their song, which bled into another.

“Even if it’s just us, there’s still enough of us.

We goin’ change the world.”