How ‘a new generation’ is taking the lead at MS Coast Juneteenth celebrations
Growing up in Gulfport, Bobby Hudson, 21, never really celebrated Juneteenth.
He had “always kind of known about” the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when 250,000 African Americans enslaved in Texas got word from the Union Army that they were free. But for Hudson, it wasn’t a big community event.
This year, he was determined to change that. And this weekend, his vision is set to become reality with the Gulfport City-Wide Juneteenth Celebration.
“If he wouldn’t have had that vision, we wouldn’t be doing this today,” said Terri Tyler, vice chairwoman of the event’s executive committee. “I think the younger generation, they are wanting to know more, and they are willing to do the work.”
African Americans have celebrated Juneteenth for 156 years, first in Texas and gradually around the country. But on the Coast in 2021, people in their early and mid-20s are launching new celebrations and working to expand awareness of the holiday and its message of Black resilience and communal joy.
In Gulfport and Gautier, they are drawing on old traditions, as well as an interest in Black organizing and uplift nurtured by last year’s massive racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
“All communities started to become a little more aware,” Hudson said. “So I felt it was important for Gulfport to really stand and celebrate Juneteenth, as well as educate our community about its significance.”
Queen Brown, 27, can’t remember a time when Juneteenth wasn’t a part of her life. The end of the school year always meant the outdoor celebration wasn’t far away, with food on the grill, special holiday T-shirts, and local Black business owners as vendors.
But that was in Canton, where she lived until 2004 and spent summers even after her family moved to Ocean Springs.
In 2019, Brown helped establish a Juneteenth celebration in Jackson County as a member of CORE (Community Organization Responsible for Engagement), a nonprofit that focuses on youth education and engagement. They didn’t see it happening in Jackson County, so they decided to create their own event.
Some of CORE’s teenage participants haven’t heard of Juneteenth before. The holiday is an opportunity to educate them about slavery and emancipation beyond what they get in school, but also to enjoy an outdoor party early in the summer.
More than 150 years after emancipation, Juneteenth commemorates the Days of Jubilee, when enslaved African Americans across the country gradually learned they were free. And even in 2021, Brown pointed out, the celebrations rebuke antebellum laws enacted to prevent enslaved African Americans from gathering.
“I think about literally what it means: jubilation,” Brown said. “So when you see just a group, a gathering, a congregation of happy Black people, it’s the best thing ever.”
History of Juneteenth in Mississippi
In Mississippi, Hattiesburg claims the oldest continuous Juneteenth celebration, started in 1983 by a woman named Marian H.W. Reed, who had learned about the tradition from a son living in Austin, Texas.
Today, the event is coordinated by another son, Reverend Ray Smith. After a hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Hattiesburg Juneteenth Freedom Day will be the city’s 38th.
On the Coast, Biloxi’s Juneteenth celebration in John Henry Beck Park is a tradition that dates back at least three decades, established by a teacher and civic leader named Calvin Glover.
“It’s a form of celebration where the youth can learn about their heritage,” one attendee told the Sun Herald in 1996.
Moss Point and Waveland have also held Juneteenth celebrations over the years.
Despite the annual Biloxi event and the observances elsewhere on the Coast, even some organizers of Juneteenth celebrations feel the holiday has never reached the level of community involvement they’d like to see.
Greg Barabino, president of the Hancock County NAACP, said that when he was growing up in the county, there was “not a peep” on Juneteenth. But for the last 10 years, Waveland has hosted an annual Juneteenth celebration.
“It’s just individual communities who push it,” he said. “It was never institutionalized like the other ones. It’s not nationally recognized. But this is 2021. This is a new generation. And we’re gonna correct the wrongs.”
A new generation
When Hudson arrived at the University of Mississippi in 2019 and started taking African American Studies courses, he gained a new outlook on his community’s history and a deeper interest in honoring it through community events.
“Our resilience, our history is just so beautiful despite our circumstances that we might have dealt with as African Americans,” he said.
Last year, Mayor Billy Hewes issued a proclamation recognizing June 19 as “Juneteenth Freedom Day.” That same day, Hudson started planning Gulfport’s 2021 Juneteenth celebration.
He asked Tyler, who is 54 and has known Hudson since he was in middle school, to work with him, and she quickly agreed.
As far as Hudson is aware, the city has not hosted a Juneteenth event in decades. (A search of the Sun Herald archives going back to 1994 also turned up no trace.)
“I think it’s a lack of information and a lack of understanding of what Juneteenth is, not only by the whole community in general but by the African American community as well,” Hudson said. “I think last year as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement... Juneteenth became a little more commercialized and acknowledged throughout the nation.”
Does Juneteenth’s growth come at a cost?
Brown said she needs only look at her own Facebook feed to see the evidence of Juneteenth’s growing popularity: People she went to college with are posting about it and local events for the first time.
National polling on the holiday is limited, but a survey by YouGov and the Economist last year found that 45% of people said they had learned of Juneteenth in 2020.
But as Juneteenth grows, so do efforts by big corporations and other predominately white institutions to get involved — and to benefit.
One social media marketing company published a blog post titled “How to Celebrate Juneteenth on Social Media.”
This year, Old Navy marketed a T-shirt for Juneteenth. It costs $6 online.
Brown worries that the growing awareness of Juneteenth among Americans of all races, and brands’ perception that they can profit by participating, could lead to the holiday’s commodification.
“Why do I need to go to Jackie down the street when I can just get it off Amazon, for instance?” he said.
“So when it comes to brands, on the one hand it will put more spotlight on Juneteenth. But then, will the respect be lost?”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill to make Juneteenth a national holiday, sending it to the House of Representatives.
Brown fears Juneteenth could one day be seen as just another long holiday weekend.
“I definitely would like it to be nationally known,” she said. “I would like brands to, you know, help with blowing it up and educating people. But if it’s going to be at the cost of the genuineness, the realness of what Juneteenth is, then I say [to] not even do it.”
Grassroots gatherings across the Coast
In 2021, celebrations on the Coast are grassroots, featuring local vendors and artists and celebrating community members.
In the Mississippi Gulf Coast Black Owned Business Network Facebook group, people share their custom designs for Juneteenth T-shirts.
CORE’s celebration has been postponed until July 17 because of the likelihood of rain on Saturday as a tropical system heads towards the Coast.
The event was set to feature local Black-owned businesses selling treats like sno-balls, and music by local artist D.J. Chestang. There will be free games and face painting, and free hot dogs and hamburgers.
Hudson, Tyler and the other Gulfport executive committee members have spent hours over the past several months researching and planning a full weekend of events.
The oratorical contest for students on Friday is named in honor of Mary Spinks-Thigpen, a community pillar of North Gulfport who helped found the MLK Coast-Wide Celebration. Sunday’s awards are named for longtime election commissioner and public servant Christene Brice and North Gulfport community member Lloyd Crouch.
The festival will feature different “villages” for activities like tailgating and shopping at local vendors. Hudson also researched and designed characters based on African traditions and folklore, including the Griots, who will tell stories and share history, and the Buffoons, who will act as clowns and entertainers.
As Juneteenth grows nationally, Hudson and Brown want to see the tradition expand on the Coast, but keep its meaning and community roots.
To Brown, one of the most important aspects of the holiday is something very simple: For Black people, it creates “a space to just come, celebrate, relax.”
“People want this to continue,” Brown said.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
