Greenfield’s Juneteenth celebration speaks to the work needed for racial equality
Published: 06-19-2024 5:32 PM
Modified: 06-19-2024 8:27 PM |
GREENFIELD — Some 30 community members gathered on Beacon Field in 90-degree weather Wednesday afternoon for the city’s third annual Juneteenth celebration.
In 2021, the Biden administration officially recognized Juneteenth — commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in Texas were emancipated — as a federal holiday. While the day celebrates the end of American slavery, most of the speakers present focused on the work still needed for the country to progress toward racial equality.
“The freedom of slavery in the 1700s or 1800s was kind of a transactional announcement, but today Black people still feel like slaves. We don’t see the bonds, we don’t see the restrictions, we don’t necessarily have to see the barriers, but they are there,” said Franklin County Community Development Corporation Racial Justice Community Engagement Leader Traci Talbert. “I am here to help you disrupt the very thing that keeps racism alive in its not-so-noticeable format.”
From noon to 5 p.m., the field came alive with performances from a variety of acts, such as Senegalese dancer Abdou Sarr, the Franklin County’s YMCA dancers, Strings for Kids, Musica Franklin, Style FX studios and the Springfield-based musician NBS Malay, who led a call-and-response, prompting the crowd to yell “I am royalty,” before a brief freestyle poetry performance and song.
“I am royalty when I was wrong. No retaliation, I followed up. I am royalty because when times went down, I kept my head high. I thought of people who fought for me to keep moving ’til I got by. You are royalty like me because you are here, and if you are here, your skin represents royalty. It’s glowing of love. It radiates,” she said.
Although the event was initially slated to begin with a parade at 11 a.m., the Greenfield Police Department announced the parade’s cancellation due to heat in a Facebook post Tuesday. Beginning her speech by acknowledging some of the racist comments written below the post, event organizer and Human Rights Commission Chair Mpress Bennu noted that the holiday, and its annual observance in Greenfield, will continue.
“In the past couple of days, if you guys have seen what’s been going on in the comment section, I just want to tell you that I’m still here and as long as I have strength in me, we will continue Juneteenth in Greenfield. We will not let them win,” Bennu said.
While some festival-goers danced, shopped at a variety of local vendors’ stands and enjoyed fresh food from local restaurants and kitchens such as Mesa Verde and Stone Soup Cafe, others picnicked in the shade or watched the speakers and musical acts from tents established across the field.
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Mayor Ginny Desorgher, whose speech followed Bennu’s, acknowledged the historical significance of emancipation, noting that racial prejudice still needs to be fought today. The mayor also vowed her support for Greenfield’s local Juneteenth celebration.
Desorgher also expressed gratitude to Bennu for continuing to organize the city’s Juneteenth festivals, calling the leader a “beacon of positivity” in the community and commending her “profound impact” on the city.
“Today, we commemorate the official ending of slavery in the United States in 1865. Since then, our world has changed significantly for the better. But much progress is still needed to create a climate absent of prejudice and injustice,” Desorgher said. “Today we must not only celebrate the significant chapter of independence in our nation, but also reflect upon how we can all work together to create a better world for all of us.”
In his brief remarks to the crowd, acting Police Chief Todd Dodge noted the need for diversity in Greenfield’s law enforcement, and encouraged members of the crowd to apply to the Police Department. He said he did not want “an entire department of robots who think, look and act exactly alike.”
Addressing the crowd, state Sen. Jo Comerford reflected on the words of historical abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without demand.” She provided examples of how demands for change on a local level have evolved into foundational elements of our society. She recalled how, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor Amilcar Shabazz’s advocacy led to the state Legislature recognizing Juneteenth as an official state holiday.
Comerford then charged the crowd with demanding more from their local government with regard to strides toward racial equity, noting the barriers that minorities still face in Massachusetts.
“Why do Black and Brown women die disproportionately during childbirth in the commonwealth? … Why is child care so unavailable to so many in our communities? How is that affecting families’ ability to work? Why is higher education so unattainable and unacceptable? Why is GCC, this wonderful institution, still too expensive for so many?” Comerford asked the crowd. “I’m really grateful to Mpress for calling us here. It is a beautiful opportunity to celebrate together and extraordinarily important that we recommit to the work of demanding the state, local and federal governments do better.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.