Canton sees Juneteenth revival

CANTON It’s an old holiday with plenty of vibrant, new and young interest.

Until this year, Juneteenth (June 19) hasn’t always garnered the kind of widespread attention as Black History Month or Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

But this year is different.

A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate to make it a federal holiday. Protests against police brutality have been a daily occurrence across the country -- cementing phrases such as “I can’t breathe,” into the everyday vocabulary of people of all ages and races.

“The only race that matters is the human race,” said Joseph Butts, who regularly photographs events sponsored by the Ohio Community Coalition.

The group welcomed all to the Nimisilla Park gazebo on Friday evening to celebrate Juneteenth, the annual holiday that marks the end of slavery in 1865.

Coalition President Sierra Mason, a 22-year-old African-American, admitted she knew little of the holiday until about a year ago.

“One of the goals is to educate people about Juneteenth and the history of it,” she said.

The free event featured pizza and red-colored foods such as strawberry shortcake, symbolic of perseverance and overcoming. A stack of voter registration materials was placed front and center.

The Coalition, which split from the Unity Coalition of Canton, has been busy. It’s set up a bail fund for arrested protesters; hosted a protest in Alliance Thursday; plans to gather to support an Akron event Saturday; then will lead a youth against violence protest, beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday at Massillon’s Great Escape movie complex.

Alhmond Davis, who hosts local web-based, political comedy skits on “The June West Show,” said he’s talked with leaders of both groups to mend fences. He said both are fighting for the same causes.

“I’m originally a street dude ... but I’m on board for anything that’s right,” he said.

Jen Veigel, a counselor in the Sandy Valley Schools, took photos of signs hung from the outside of the gazebo, with messages such as: “155 years later & still fighting for equality” and “kneel for peace & stand for justice.”

Veigel came with her 21-year-old college senior daughter, Jadynn, and a friend, Becky Blackford, a teacher in the Sandy Valley system.

The trio sported matching T-shirts with seven words stacked from top to bottom on front -- kindness, peace, equality, love, inclusion hope, diversity.

“We’re just trying to educate ourselves,” Veigel said.

The celebration commemorates the date enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were finally told they were free. It was June 19, 1865 -- two months after the Civil War ended and more than two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @tbotosREP