It’s a national holiday now. Time to let people know what Juneteenth has meant all along
Since 1983, the Fred U. Harris Lodge 70, a historically Black Freemason organization has held an annual Juneteenth barbecue at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey. They served the best barbecued ribs and chicken on the planet. The crowd of about 200 included plenty of veterans, scores of members of New Life Baptist Church, babies, little kids, big kids, and adults of every age and hue. It is a comfortable, well-worn and growing tradition that is welcoming to all.
Hank Sheegog, a Lodge member and veteran who served in Vietnam, Germany, and Korea has attended for all those years. He was “flabbergasted” to see Juneteenth become a national holiday.
“People who’ve never heard of it are going to learn something new, and that’s a good thing. It may help people see we have more similarities than differences and not feel threatened by Black people.”
In Olympia, a Juneteenth event called Omo Africa was new, and the vibe was decidedly different. At the Fertile Ground garden just north of the library, there was African drumming and dancing, Buffalo Soldier re-enactors on horseback, and a rap poet. The Olympia event was sponsored by the Hawk Foundation for Research and Education in African Culture, the Women of Color in Leadership Movement, Media Island International and the city of Olympia. It was organized by Shawna Hawk, the founder of WCLM and Director of Media Island, and Javoen Byrd, director of the Hawk Foundation. They say its purpose was “education, celebration, and community healing.”
The Olympia event focused on honoring both African and African American history, especially local ancestors such as George Washington Bush and Rebecca Howard. Hawk says “We don’t want to be seen as victims; we want to celebrate our resilience, contributions, achievements, and families.”
Those two very different events reflect the cultural and demographic difference between Olympia and Lacey.
Lacey’s Black population is well over 3,000, or 6.2 percent. Olympia has about 1,350 Black people, or 2.6 percent of the population, according to Thurston Regional Planning Council data.
Lacey was an unincorporated, mostly rural area until the city was created in 1966. Olympia, had many racially exclusionary covenants, which meant that most local Black families could only find housing in Lacey. Some of those racially exclusionary covenants still exist, even though they have been unenforceable for decades. In addition, Lacey’s proximity to the military installations now known as JBLM drew Black soldiers, their families and an ever-growing population of Black military retirees.
Shawna Hawk, who’s lived in Olympia for nine years, says “It’s hard to find Blacks here.” She says she’d appreciate help creating stronger networks among them.
What the two cities and the two events have in common is a commitment to keep celebrating Juneteenth — one with ribs and chicken, the other with history and education.
There were other, smaller Juneteenth celebrations too — one in Tumwater, another in a park in Lacey, and yet another, more protest than celebration, in downtown Olympia.
But even before the celebrations were over, there was debate about what impact this newly recognized holiday will have.
Pessimists derided its commercialization, symbolized by Walmart selling Juneteenth tee shirts. Optimists viewed those tee shirts as a welcome sign of mainstream recognition of a watershed day in American history.
Both hope that more Americans will learn that on that watershed day, the general who showed up to inform Black people they were no longer enslaved said their freedom promised “an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.” Reflecting on that might lead to recognition that America still has miles to go to keep that promise.
Following the civil war, during Reconstruction, federal troops were sent to the South to try to make good on the General’s promise. They protected Black people’s right to vote, resulting in elected Black congressman, senators, and local elected officials and rising Black businesses. But in 1877, when a deal was struck to settle a contested Presidential election, federal troops were withdrawn from the South, and southern states rewrote their constitutions to enshrine segregation and disenfranchise Black voters.
In the 1960s, the civil rights movement won passage of the second Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act — an era now often referred to as the Second Reconstruction. Once again, that Reconstruction was followed by backlash and backsliding.
Real optimists hope that this year’s Juneteenth will mark a turning point towards a Third Reconstruction — a new era of significant and lasting progress towards racial equality. We pray that on next year’s Juneteenth, that hope has grown stronger.
This story was originally published June 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
