'A valid reason to celebrate': Palm Springs recognizes Juneteenth with community event

As organizers and community groups were settling in Saturday for a Juneteenth celebration at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center, Palm Desert resident Lori Saunders-Rodgers was in a celebratory mood.

Saunders-Rodgers celebrated the holiday growing up in Macon, Georgia, and is pleased to see it becoming celebrated nationwide since becoming a federal holiday last year.

"The black population (in Palm Springs) is a small percentage, and having a celebration here gives us a valid reason to celebrate," Saunders-Rodgers said.

Palm Springs Black History Committee President Jarvis Crawford told The Desert Sun he's pleased to see more of a local, diverse crowd supporting the holiday over the past two years.

Shortly before the DJs began playing music, San Jacinto city councilmember Brian Hawkins, who is running as a Republican against Democrat Rep. Raul Ruiz in the 25th Congressional District, was seen speaking to organizer Brian Jackson in front of the stage area.

Hawkins said Juneteenth is an "important celebration,” adding that he disagrees with other Republicans who see the holiday as a political attack on the Fourth of July.

The holiday commemorates the day that news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln issued to free enslaved African Americans on Jan. 1, 1863, reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

“You would think Juneteenth would be a day to say, ‘Let’s celebrate!’” Hawkins said. “I look at it as a family reunion day. The day that slaves in Texas were freed, they went looking for their family members. I think this is a healing holiday for many families. I think that’s how we should [look] at this, as a day to bring families back together and celebrate all the good times.”

Texas was the last Confederate state where the proclamation was announced, and the first to recognize the date of June 19 – Juneteenth – statewide. The inaugural Juneteenth was held in 1866 to commemorate the official day enslaved people in Galveston were freed. The holiday, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, spread across the country as African Americans migrated away from the South.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not result in all enslaved African Americans being freed, however. The proclamation guaranteed freedom to enslaved people in Confederate states like Texas, but not Union states like Maryland, which did not secede during the Civil War. The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, freed all enslaved people in the country.

Twenty organizations such as local nonprofit Lift to Rise and United Methodist Church of Palm Springs were on-site for the Juneteenth festivities Saturday. Jackson said there were more sponsors and volunteers participating at the event than previous years, but he wanted to stick to a traditional celebration instead of one focused on community activism.

“Our ancestors fought so hard for the few things we have in our community,” Jackson said. “We felt like this should be the day we celebrate the freedom to walk around our own neighborhood and play with our kids at the park. That’s the most exciting part we think the city (residents) are grasping on to.”

Jackson said the only local Juneteenth event when he was growing up was in Riverside, which he attended with family members. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and co-organizer Theo Murrell began planning the celebration for Palm Springs.

“What we want is for the kids to have fun, along with our elders and everyone else coming out to enjoy themselves — eat food, play games and laugh while enjoying the celebration,” Murrell said.

Juneteenth came to national prominence amid nationwide protests sparked by the killing of Louisville, Kentucky, woman Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020 and Minneapolis man George Floyd on May 25, 2020 — both during encounters with law enforcement. Floyd and Taylor were Black. Their deaths spotlighted ongoing racial inequities in the justice system.

Congress passed The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in June 2021, a day after the Senate passed the bill with unanimous consent. Biden signed the bill into law on June 17 – two days before Juneteenth.

Previous reporting by USA TODAY staff writer N'dea Yancey-Bragg was used for this report. 

Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 'A valid reason to celebrate': Palm Springs recognizes Juneteenth