Juneteenth celebrates freedom, differences
Muna Mohamed, left, a board member with the Alliance for Greater Equity, and volunteer Martha Williams kept busy at the cotton candy machine during Saturday’s Juneteenth celebration at Manthey Park in Owatonna. Staff photo by Kay Fate
Maybe it was the new location: Manthey Park.
Maybe it was the success of last year’s Juneteenth celebration in Owatonna.
Maybe it’s progress.
“This event is truly a celebration of freedom for Black people,” said Brian Coleman, president of the Alliance for Greater Equity (AGE). “We’re really looking at trying to help our community embrace that XXXXX, and celebrate all our pockets of diversity.”
AGE marked Juneteenth, a federal holiday inspired by the date in 1865 that Union troops finally reached Texas, bringing with them the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation and freeing the enslaved Black people. The troops arrived more than two years after the law went into effect.
“It’s important for our community to be aware of what Juneteenth is,” Coleman said. “The Alliance wants to make sure we’re providing opportunities for the community to come together and feel welcome – and celebrate everybody’s differences. That’s what makes us unique.”
Chad Sykes and Martha Williams moved to Owatonna from Florida so Williams could attend graduate school. She recently earned her master’s degree in public health and works for Rice County Public Health.
Sykes coaches football at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva High School.
They were volunteers at Saturday’s event.
“We talk often about how we grew up,” said Williams. She and Sykes both identify as Black.
While she recognizes the lack of diversity in the area, “I think it’s really cool that kids are able to see, ‘oh, I have a coach that looks like me.’ I think that’s important.”
Williams did a research paper about “the sense of belonging and how race plays into that,” asking for local input from people who identify as Black.
“The backlash I got was crazy,” she said, and unexpected. “I think people get uncomfortable when we’re used to centering whiteness, then we try to de-center that to make space for other people… I know not everyone thinks like that, but it gives you a hesitancy that you wish wasn’t there.”
Williams said she and Sykes also talk about a sense of belonging in their new community, “but I think there’s an element of having the best expectations of people, because that’s something within our control.”
Casey and Lee Bakewell, of Owatonna, sat at a picnic table with their daughter Louise and listened to the Johnnie Brown Experience, which provided music.
“We came last year, too,” Casey Bakewell said, “and I’m glad to see so many more people here this year. I think it’s important to support equality – and I’m glad Owatonna has this.”