‘We all need to lean in.’ Juneteenth has special meaning for Coast communities in 2020.

For Sheena Davison, watching the news hits home.

First there was coverage of Black communities disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. Then seemingly endless replays of a Minneapolis police officer killing George Floyd. Then protesters across the country marching against police brutality.

Her brother, Nicholas Hunter, was killed by a Milwaukee police officer in 2008.

Facing so many realities of being Black in America, Davison decided to bring people together. As the owner of The Spot Buffet and Catering in Moss Point, she organized a Juneteenth gathering on June 13.

“A time like this is when we all need to lean in together and depend on the community — not just the community, the Black community — and say hey, we’re tired,” Davison said. “We’ve had enough, we been had enough. It’s gotta start somewhere. I think it goes back into the roots of our culture.”

Juneteenth started on June 19, 1865, when some 250,000 enslaved African-Americans in Texas received word from the Union Army that they were free. It had taken two and a half years for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach them, and for soldiers to arrive to enforce it.

The first celebrations took place that day, and Black Texans began marking the anniversary the following year. As they moved around the country, they took the event with them.

This year, organizers of Juneteenth events across South Mississippi share Davison’s view that celebrating the holiday feels more important than ever.

Juneteenth is a way of connecting with the past, at a time when Americans are reckoning with how racism still shapes the present. It’s also fun — a get-together with food, music, and games, outdoors on a summer day.

“We wanted to have something that celebrated us so we could not focus on negativity,” said Patrice Pickett Thomas, Davison’s co-organizer. “We wanted to focus on unity.”

Mississippi’s first Juneteenth

Reverend Ray Smith of Hattiesburg credits his mother, Marian H.W. Reed, with launching Mississippi’s oldest continuing Juneteenth celebration. Reed learned about the holiday from another son, who was living in Austin, Texas. She coordinated Hattiesburg’s first event in 1983.

Over the years, Smith took over. At one point, he said, it was the biggest in the state.

“What we’re basically about is healing the nation from the legacy of slavery, the detriment that it caused to our entire population,” Smith said. “We all played a part in it, and we all need to play a part in healing our nation from what slavery has done to our nation.”

Smith also got involved in the national effort to advocate for states to recognize Juneteenth. Reverend Ronald Myers, a doctor who worked in the Mississippi Delta, founded the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation. Myers contacted Smith in the late 1990s and recruited him to the organization; today, Smith is treasurer and Mississippi State Director at the Foundation.

The Foundation coordinated efforts to lobby state governments around the country to officially recognize Juneteenth. In 2010, Mississippi became the 36th state to officially recognize the day. Today, 47 states and the District of Columbia honor it.

Coronavirus precautions

Smith had planned for this year’s Juneteenth, Hattiesburg’s 37th, to be a big celebration. But as coronavirus showed no sign of slowing down in Mississippi, he made the decision to cancel it.

“At a time like this, we really need to have our celebration. But it’s not worth the risk to put people at danger with their life and health,” he said.

Around the country, the coronavirus has disproportionately affected Black Americans: just over 50% of Mississippians who have died of COVID-19 were Black, though African-Americans are 37% of the state’s population.

Coast organizers of Juneteenth events are urging attendees to take precautions. The flyer for Davison and Pickett Thomas’s event in Moss Point announced: “Social Distancing will be in effect! Wear a mask!”

Moss Point was a coronavirus hotspot early on in the pandemic, with dozens of cases in early April.

Organizers of upcoming events are also taking steps to try to limit the potential for spreading the virus, and to turn their gatherings into opportunities to share information and resources.

At its celebration on June 20, the City of Moss Point plans to give out 5,000 masks.

Biloxi’s Juneteenth celebration the same day will include a mask giveaway and a booth set up by the organization Black Nurses Rock, offering information about COVID-19.

Celebration and protest

Some Juneteenth events on the Coast will incorporate protests against racism and symbols of the Confederacy.

Biloxi’s Unity March & Prayer on Saturday morning will end with the city’s Juneteenth event at 11 a.m.

On Juneteenth itself, Friday, Jeffrey Hulum III is planning a protest outside the Harrison County courthouse calling for the removal of the Confederate monument. Hulum began working on plans to call for the monument’s removal nine months ago, but he believes that now, the timing is particularly “just.”

And Juneteenth is the perfect time to call for the removal of a statue etched with “Lest We Forget,” and “1861-1865,” honoring “the glory days of the Confederacy,” he said.

“What better day to generate momentum and have this statue called out, than the day that officially ended slavery in 1865?” Hulum said. “Those dates tie hand in hand.”

A Saturday in Moss Point

On Saturday, about 40 people marched across the field at the Jackson County Civic Action Center, carrying a Juneteenth banner. Thomas sang, “Oh, Freedom!” a song popular during the civil rights movement.

A’mon Haynes, a 20-year-old rising senior at Tougaloo College, gave a speech on the meaning of Juneteenth. In 1619, he said, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. In 1863, the United States passed the Emancipation Proclamation.

“In 2020, 401 years later, what has changed?” Haynes asked, citing mass incarceration and systemic racism.

“We have progressed, but it seems we are at a standstill and are stagnant. We must be more progressive.”

Haynes said he didn’t know much about Juneteenth until he started attending Tougaloo, a historically Black college. His mother, Angie Haynes, had celebrated Juneteenth in the past but found her son’s perspective gave her a new understanding of it.

“The meaning of the celebration is always the same,” she said. “But what’s different this year is what’s happening in the world that brings more focus to the event.”

As A’mon Haynes spoke, the grills were heating up for the ribs competition. Picnic tables were piled with hot dogs and chips and coolers were filled with sodas. A snoball truck had pulled into the park to give out free treats.

So many donations had poured in to support the event that Davison planned to use the leftover money to hold a backpack giveaway for Moss Point kids when school starts in August.

Thomas returned to the stage after Haynes finished his speech.

“Now let’s Juneteenth, everyone!” she shouted.

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 5:50 AM.