ERIK YABOR | Breaking News ReporterAn old holiday was celebrated under very new circumstances Saturday afternoon.
For the first time, Juneteenth was celebrated in Lancaster County as a federal holiday.
In downtown Lancaster, the day was commemorated by the Juneteenth flag being raised at City Hall on Friday. The flag, whose origins trace back to 1997, was to remain flying until today.
Celebrators gathered at Lancaster County Central Park on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the announcement of the emancipation of slaves in Texas in 1865 — the last enslaved Black people in the South to be informed of their freedom after the Civil War — at an event hosted by the Spice of Life Foundation and the NAACP Lancaster Branch.
Blanding Watson, president of the NAACP Lancaster Branch, said the holiday is day of both celebration and remembrance.
“It’s a time of reflection for me, for what my ancestors have done for me,” he said. “It’s a time to reflect on what are the things we need to continue doing and working on, and to celebrate our ancestors like Harriet Tubman and many others that fought for our rights, as well our white allies that helped us along the way.”
‘No one knew’
African Americans have long celebrated Juneteenth within their communities, Watson said, but not many people knew about the holiday until recently.
Even just a few years ago, attention given to the holiday was minimal.
“No one knew,” said Denisha Gantz, 33, coordinator, organizer and vice president of the Spice of Life Foundation, the scholarship fund that hosted Saturday’s event alongside the NAACP. “That’s what I hear from most people, is that they didn’t know about it.”
Gantz and the Spice of Life Foundation have been hosting Juneteenth celebrations like Saturday’s for the past four years, featuring food, music, games and information about the history of the holiday to teach others about the day’s meaning.
Elevating the day to a national holiday comes as a double-edged sword, Gantz said, highlighting the day’s importance in Black history to many while also cheapening its meaning.
“It’s a door opener, because now everybody’s eyes are open to Juneteenth,” she said, “but at the same time, if people wouldn’t go the extra mile to receive information, they won’t now, because it’s everywhere now.”
Governments recognize holiday
Lancaster County’s board of commissioners approved a proclamation last week recognizing the holiday in what may be the first time in the county’s history.
In Pennsylvania, the day was previously designated as “Juneteenth National Freedom Day” by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019, before being made a special state holiday earlier this year.
President Joe Biden signed a bill making the day the nation’s newest federal holiday on Thursday.
Now, the day is celebrated across the nation.
The new designation as the nation’s 12th federal holiday was met with optimism among those at Saturday’s event in the park — but plenty of caution as well.
“Of course that’s a beautiful thing and that’s something to celebrate,” said Dominique Miller, 27, of Lancaster, “but it’s also something to be very, very mindful of.”
“This country was built off of the backs of Black people,” said Miller, who read a spoken-word poem at a morning vigil hosted by the NAACP under his stage name, Sir Dominique Jordan. “Honestly, we deserve a lot more than just our holiday being recognized.”
Much of Black culture and identity has been commercialized in recent years, Miller said.
“Don’t just think it’s a national holiday so you should just go buy a T-shirt,” said Gantz, clutching a homemade Juneteenth shirt. “Just two years ago you couldn’t find a Juneteenth T-shirt anywhere.”
‘Symbolic gesture’
For some, the new federal holiday isn’t necessarily seen as a step in the right direction.
“The last thing we need is a symbolic gesture,” Gerald Simmons, 70, of Lancaster, a pastor at Faith Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.
“When Martin Luther King’s birthday was made a national holiday, it didn’t change the outcomes of the average African American’s life,” he said. “When Barack Obama became president of the United States, it didn’t change the average African American’s life. Those were window dressings.”
Rather, African Americans need a systemic change in the United States that sees them achieve better education and equal voting rights, among other goals, Simmons said.
For Simmons, Juneteenth is “yet another example in our country’s history that memorializes that lack of fairness, the intentional oppression of people of color — Black people and others who are not the ‘majority culture,’ if we can even call it that anymore.”
The holiday is “a recognition of the pure disrespect and disregard for the law as it had been passed two years before,” Simmons said, referring to 1862’s Emancipation Proclamation.
“And thus, Black people were held for another two years as indentured servants,” he said. “But finally, justice prevailed, and justice delayed may not always be justice denied.”
Black people have used prayer, litigation and demonstrations, “the overwhelming of which have been peaceful,” to work toward equal rights since that day in 1865, Simmons said.
But even if the effort is only symbolic, Kesha Morant Williams, 43, of Lancaster, said Juneteenth is a day worth celebrating.
“Juneteenth means freedom,” Morant Williams said. “It means celebration. It means a chance to be present and visible on a larger scale.”
