Annapolis Juneteenth: Celebrating Freedom for All Americans By Chelsea Harrison
This year marks the 4th Annual Annapolis Juneteenth Festival and Parade, which will take place on June 21-22. Celebrations will include: the Gala (June 21); Parade (June 22, noon); and, Festival (June 22, starting at 2 p.m.). The parade will travel from Annapolis City Dock to the Bates Athletic Complex, where the celebration continues with live music performances, the Freedom Way exhibition, children’s activities, vendors, and more. Annapolis’ Juneteenth Festival and Parade events are a dream come true–literally. Phyllis “Tee” Adams, entrepreneur and Executive Director of Dreamers Making A Difference, Inc., had a dream in which she saw thousands of people gathering together in Annapolis. “The word that God gave me was simply ‘Juneteenth’…Thus the vision was born,” Adams explains. In 2022, the baton was passed to Dr. Craig Coates, a historian, pastor, and community leader who was involved in creating the Freedom Walk exhibit from the beginning. Since then, Dr. Craig Coates and Celebrate Annapolis Juneteenth Corporation (a non-profit) have organized and sponsored the festival. Juneteenth Pop-Up Another part of this year’s celebration is the Juneteenth Pop-Up at the Annapolis Town Center from June 1-15. The interactive pop-up exhibit gives residents and shoppers a prelude to the festival, including Dr. Coates’ exhibition entitled “Freedom Way: A Blueprint of Resistance and Liberation of Enslaved People in the United States from 1619 to Present.” “For most people, this was a new history lesson,” he says, reflecting on the 2023 pop-up, “To watch people and their children and their grandchildren, and seeing people say, ‘We had no idea.’” This year, Coates says, “We are really taking it to the next step; it’s going to be bigger.” Wednesdays will be Kids Day at the pop-up, featuring storytellers, puppet shows, and other crafts and activities
for kids, all in the name of educating kids about Juneteenth in an age-appropriate way. As Dr. Coates says, “Celebrations are not meant to just validate, but also to educate.” The History of Juneteenth On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and to ensure the freedom of 250,000 people still being held in bondage there. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed into law by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863– two and a half years prior–there were still places in the country where the news was being withheld, and people remained enslaved. As Dr. Coates says, “There were people in this country that were still slaves, not because legislation hadn’t freed them, but because people hadn’t freed them.” The Festival Dr. Coates emphasizes that all are welcome to the Juneteenth Festival and events; “One of the things that I point out through the Freedom Way trail is that freedom wasn’t won by a race, it was won by the human race.” Here are some Festival features for the whole family: • Virtual scavenger hunt • The Watoto Village (Watoto is Swahili for children.) This area will be primarily be geared for kids! • A variety of music performances. • Before the festival, there will be a Poetry Contest in which people can create their own expression of freedom. The winning poets will perform on the big stage at the festival. Annapolis Juneteenth Festival and Parade is looking for volunteers to help make this year’s events a success. To help out, fill out the volunteer form on the Annapolis Juneteenth website.
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