'I want to uplift people': Newport’s Sankofa to host Juneteenth celebration
NEWPORT — Local nonprofit Sankofa Community Connection will host on Saturday a free Juneteenth event at the Great Friends Meeting House in Newport in commemoration of the national ending of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth has been widely celebrated by African American communities in the United States for over 150 years and was made an official Newport holiday in 2020, and recognized by the US government as a federal holiday in 2021.
Sankofa stated in a press release that the goal of the event is to bring together diverse people for a day of celebration and education featuring local, national, and international artists, performers, guest speakers and free cultural food. In addition to celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, the event is also geared toward educating attendees about the holiday’s history.
Sankofa’s Founding Executive Director Niko Merritt indicated that this year’s event will feature both old and new collaborators and will include interactive art-making, visual history, free soul food, music and outdoor movies.
RI Black Storytellers, the Newport Historical Society, the Newport Art Museum and world-renowned djembefola Sidy Maiga all participated in the city’s 2020 Juneteenth celebration and will be back this year. Maiga will play his djembe drum and will lead a parade to the Liberty Tree.
New partners include the Steel Yard, a nonprofit industrial art center located in Providence, and the Providence Children’s Film Festival, which will screen several short films featuring local children before showing its feature, “Black is King,” a visual album featuring the music of Beyonce, on the lawn of the Great Friends Meeting House.
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Regarding the event’s programming, Merritt said, “We often hear about what our community is lacking…I want to uplift people, to show them what our community has accomplished, and for people to leave with their heads held high.”
She mentioned that many public agencies and nonprofit organizations tend to come together with and for the local Black community only to address problems or highlight negative statistics, whereas Juneteenth is an opportunity for community members and organizations to join in celebration of history and culture and uplift the Black community.
She stated, “I’m hoping to see all different people – people from all walks of life, community members, people from outside our local community – coming together and celebrating freedom, Black culture, and the beauty of our community.”
History of Juneteenth
Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, when the enslaved people there finally received word about Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued more than two years earlier in 1863. The holiday has been celebrated by African American communities in Texas since 1866, and gradually spread across the entire country.
It is worth noting that Lincoln’s famed proclamation did not free all slaves; it only freed slaves in secessionist Confederate states. This meant that actual emancipation came only with the advance of Union troops into Confederate territory and that legal chattel slavery continued in the Union border states of Delaware and Kentucky until ratification of the 13th amendment in December 1865, and in Choctaw territory until 1866, when the tribe, which had fought alongside the Confederacy, signed a treaty with the US government which included the abolition of slavery by Native American tribes.
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The city of Newport issued a proclamation recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday in 2020. The proclamation by then-major Jamie Bova provided for its annual celebration on the third Saturday of June, to overlap with an annual celebratory Day of Renewal which Sankofa Community Connection had instituted in 2017.
The event will run from 3 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. at Great Friends Meeting House, located at 21 Farewell St., Newport. Attendees can find free street parking in the area, or park near Miantonomi Memorial Park and ride a complimentary shuttle provided by FabNewport, which will run at 2:25 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Juneteenth celebration in Newport honors national end of slavery
