‘Emancipation and freedom:’ Where (and why) to celebrate Juneteenth in Beaufort Co.
A celebratory air will fill Beaufort County parks and the digital airwaves this weekend as people celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of the last enslaved people in the Confederacy in 1865.
The official holiday is Friday, but events marking Juneteenth span the weekend.
On Hilton Head, Mitchelville Freedom Park has partnered with six other museums and historical monuments across the nation to hold a digital commemoration of Juneteenth at noon on Friday.
The presentation will feature appearances from Lonnie Bunch III, the first African American and first historian to serve as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Johnetta Betsch Cole, an anthropologist, educator, museum director, and the first female African American president of Spelman College; and Carla Hayden, librarian of Congress, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library.
It is online at BLKFREEDOM.org. The program is a joint effort of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle, the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex in Miami, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park on Hilton Head.
Mitchelville will not hold its annual Juneteenth celebration at the park this year.
On St. Helena Island, the Gullah Geechee Initiative Foundation will be marking the holiday by giving back.
“COVID-19 has affected every aspect of our society, and with the rise in unemployment rates, low-income families and individuals are unable to purchase adequate food to maintain a healthy diet. Consequently, food banks are overwhelmed because the demand is far greater than the supply,” according to founder Kamal Wigfall.
The foundation will distribute emergency assistance food bags for individuals and families. The bags will contain fresh fruits and vegetables, and non-perishable food items that are typically used by St. Helena Island households in preparing meals, according to Wigfall.
Distribution will be from 3 to 6 p.m. on Friday at the Martin Luther King Memorial Park at Sea Island Parkway and MLK Drive on St. Helena.
In Bluffton, a Gullah market at Bluffton Eagles Field is planned for 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday.
It will feature over 40 vendors, African drummers, Gullah storytellers, voter registration booths, census support booths, and information on how to be an advocate for the Gullah community.
The event is organized by the Bluffton MLK Observance Committee, which has helped organize community rallies and protests for the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.
A rising tide of demands for change
This year’s commemoration of Juneteenth comes as nationwide protests call for more accountability from police departments and justice for Black men and women killed by law enforcement or by armed white people in hate crimes.
The protests have spurred many employers to readdress diversity within their organizations, and major companies have announced they would recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday for employees.
In Beaufort County, near-daily protests and rallies have been taking place on county roads and in local parks.
The demonstrators have asked for an end to the use of the word “plantation” in gated communities, more attention to policing practices and attention on issues that affect Gullah-Geechee people who live in the county, such as sewer connections, road paving and loss of land.
