Powerful messages and themes permeated a Juneteenth celebration in Gainesville on June 19.
The messages shared at the annual Juneteenth Breakfast at the Cotton Club Museum & Cultural Center included the notions that “freedom is not free,” that there are factions in the country who continue to fight for the freedom of all people and some who believe things were better before the full enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that music and culture have influenced the survival of Black people in America.
“Freedom is not free and it must be fought for by every generation,” said state Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, who presided over the program.
Before Hinson began with her opening remarks, people mingled and hugged one another as the room filled to capacity, with about 300 people in attendance. Those attending included a cross-section of the community, including local residents, church folk, elected, appointed and law enforcement officials, political candidates, business people and a host of other organizations.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said three dates began to settle on his heart as he thought earlier in the week about the significance of Juneteenth. He said those dates are June 18-20, and he broke it down in a not-hard-to-understand manner.
June 18 is celebrated by those who will tell people not to worry about equal rights and respecting the freedom and dignity of all people, Ward said.
“They will tell you everything is alright, and you don’t need to do that,” Ward said, adding that those people will say, “We are colorblind; we don’t see that.”
Juneteenth (June 19) counteracts that by saying we are going to respect the freedom and dignity of all people anyway, Ward said.
“We know what we need to do and we are going to put our shoulders on wheel and get it done,” Ward said, emphasizing that those sentiments are what’s in the hearts of people who celebrate Juneteenth.
June 20 is the day to look back on history. The country can decide if moving forward can be done with unity, “and whether or not we have the intestinal fortitude to admit what was wrong, to celebrate what is possible, and roll up our sleeves to do the work to make sure that we don’t go back to June 18,” Ward said.
Ward was followed on the program by Ken Cornell, chair of the Alachua County Commission.
Citing remarks made by former first lady Michelle Obama during a celebration on June 18 of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago, Cornell said: “Hope is a choice and we all must continue the steady work of change.”
He then talked about the significance of the Cotton Club Museum, saying it is a “witness to the community’s full story.”
The Cotton Club was a gathering place for Black Gainesville when venues to do so were scarce, Cornell said.
“It held music, it held celebrations, it held grief and it held resistance and it held us together when the broader culture was determined to keep to keep us apart,” Cornell said.
The Alachua County Commission invested more than $300,000 into the structural integrity of the CCMCC, at 837 SE Seventh Ave., earlier this year “because we believe that institutions that carries this community’s culture deserve the same public investment that other institutions carry,” Cornell said, drawing a rousing round of applause.
The theme of the breakfast was “Celebrating the Legacy of African Inspired Music and Culture,” and Jacquelyn Collins, a member of the CCMCC’s board of directors, remarked about that legacy.
“Our freedom has always had a soundtrack,” Collins said.
June was established as Black Music Month in 1979 thanks to the vision of “Philadelphia Soul pioneer Kenny Gamble, radio DJ Ed Bright, and media strategist Anna Williams,” Collins said, adding that the name would later be changed to African American Music Appreciation Month.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville leaders and community mark Juneteenth at Cotton Club
Reporting by Cleveland Tinker, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cleveland Tinker, Gainesville Sun | USA TODAY Network
