The third annual Juneteenth celebration in Warsaw Saturday night was a little different than the previous two years.
It came only two days after President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday. The House voted 415-14 Wednesday for the new holiday, and the Senate unanimously approved it Tuesday. Under the legislation, the federal holiday is known as Juneteenth National Independence Day.
Warsaw’s Juneteenth program was organized and supported by One Warsaw – Celebrating Us and the African and Black Leaders for Excellence (ABLE) resource group of Zimmer Biomet. Sara McNeal Strahan Lenfestey, One Warsaw – Celebrating Us, served as host.
In his remarks, retired community leader Joe Banks explained the history of Juneteenth to the approximately 75 people gathered at the Shrine Building. Banks was the first of five speakers.
“Prior to the president’s actions, 47 states had already created a holiday for Juneteenth. The three holdouts were North and South Dakota and Hawaii. Now everyone is covered,” Banks said. “It’s interesting that, for all the tug-of-wars and dissentions between the president and the Republican senators, this action was unanimous.”
The original celebration was held in churches, he said, with lots of food, songs and rodeos. “They can’t have celebrations in Texas without rodeos.”
June 19 evolved into Juneteenth and that’s what it’s called today, Banks said. In its early days, it also was called Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day.
June 19, 1865, is an important part of American history because it closes the chapter on slavery in Texas, Banks said.
“Slavery has an ugly history in America. Our first round of slaves goes all the way back to 1819. It grew to include the shipping of 12 million people, men, women and children, from West Africa to the United States. This was accomplished by stuffing people in the lower storage areas of merchant ships. This journey was called the Middle Passage because hygiene was poor, because food was short. This Middle Passage accounted for the deaths of 1.5 million people,” Banks said.
When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, the declared purpose of President Lincoln was to preserve the Union. “There was no word about ending slavery,” Banks said. The casualties of the war were enormous. In World War II, 141,000 Americans died. In the Civil War, there were 620,000 casualties from the north and south.
“The Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave. What it did was, aimed at the states in rebellion, it said the slaves would be free in those states. What that meant was, as the states were captured by the Union army, slaves would then free themselves and go behind the Union lines and help serve,” Banks said.
The Civil War ended April 9, 1865. States and the slaves in those states had an opportunity to rejoice.
“Across the south they rejoiced, but not in Texas,” Banks said. “Texas was that far-away land. There were no military posts in Texas. There was no official word in Texas in April. No official word in Texas in May. But on June 19, the Union Army general, Gordon Granger, proclaimed in Galveston, Texas, that the war was over and the president’s executive order freed all the slaves.”
Concluding his remarks, Banks said, “June 19 evolved into Juneteenth and it’s been called Jubilee Day. It’s been called Emancipation Day. Now, Juneteenth is a national holiday.”
Kosciusko County Senior Services Executive Director David Neff talked about what KCSS does.
“Inclusion and exclusion are obviously the opposite of each other. Seniors, in my experience, tend to be the forgotten age group. They suffer with dementia and alzheimer’s, they’re physically and mentally a little off, and then you throw in this COVID thing. I’ve got seniors that have been in their houses for a year and a half now and they’re afraid, they’re still afraid. This pandemic was aimed directly at my population,” he said.
Neff touched on seniors of color. He said his dad and Strahan’s dad were both born in 1939. His dad was born in Claypool, while Strahan’s dad was born in Georgia.
“They had a world of difference of a life trip,” he said. “Seniors of color have had to overcome, not the thought of Jim Crow laws, not the thought of segregation, they had to overcome actual codified discrimination. It was on the books.”
He said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other “glorious” actions did not make immediate change.
“So, 1964 was a long time ago, but there’s still a lot of seniors of color that had to live under those rules,” Neff said. “Seniors of color that were denied the education opportunities legally back all those years ago, now they’re coming to the end of the line. So, a lot of times things are difficult for them.”
Neff introduced Pernell Bailey. Bailey came to the Senior Center 5-1/2 years ago. His special lady had passed away, and some of his “friends” had taken advantage of him. He needed to get into a place to live, and the Senior Center got him into the Retired Tigers apartments.
“He’s got glasses. He’s got hearing aides now. We’re working on some other things,” Neff said. “But here’s the incredible part about who I’m about to introduce. Seventy-two-year-old man and he’s working to get his high school diploma. Seventy-two-years-old and he’s working hard. It’s not easy for him. But I see him working, I see him studying every day.”
Neff said Bailey was working with Cindy Cates of Kosciusko Literacy Services. He brings his books in every day and other seniors help him.
Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert talked about how the school corporation has addressed a variety of student issues, from food insecurity and mental health to promoting inclusivity.
“So as we start looking forward though, we’re kind of at that checkpoint. What are our goals? What are our goals as we continue forward as Warsaw Community Schools?” Hoffert said in part of his remarks.
Ten years ago, WCS had a group of 70-75 people who came together and put together a mission statement to “up the game” academically. Hoffert said they were able to do that. Then five years ago, during a strategic planning session, a student stood up and said high school students aren’t OK. The student said students “have struggles that you don’t see on the outside all the time. We put pressures on ourselves. We have mental health issues that are going on,” Hoffert recalled. WCS’ focus at that point became social-emotional learning.
“This last year, we brought groups back together,” Hoffert said before introducing School Board President Heather Reichenbach. She shared about WCS’ data collection over the last year to come up with the goals for the next five years.
“A true community voice went toward our new goals for our schools. Based on that focus group, then we had individual interviews with some of the people, and themes started to emerge,” she said. “… There were four pillars that emerged from that. And those four pillars last September were brought back to a smaller group that made some action plans for those pillars.”
Hoffert talked about those four pillars, which include empathy, inclusivity, adaptability and experience. Each pillar has an action plan behind it.
PJ Hardy, from ABLE, spoke briefly.
“We are certainly honored, I’m honored, as part of Zimmer Biomet to be speaking to you today, just very briefly, on behalf of Zimmer, as well as for our African and Black Leaders for Excellence,” he said. “… We are certainly honored to be here again. We want to thank One Warsaw for the collaboration on this event, as well.”
He said when Zimmer Biomet CEO Bryan Hanson came on board in 2017, “he certainly brought a new, fresh perspective on things and ideas. We have a saying at Zimmer Biomet, ‘the power of us,’ and there’s been a lot of empowerment of the employee resource groups.” Hardy said there’s been a renewed focus to really empower the team members to do a lot of things. “That’s what we are doing at ABLE, putting not just words to it but actions.”
As part of those actions, Hardy announced that ABLE at Zimmer Biomet will provide a $1,000 donation to One Warsaw.
“We certainly hope it’s the start of a relationship with One Warsaw and this is just a great event and we hope it’s just the beginning,” Hardy concluded.
The final speaker of the night was Jalyn Radziminski, founder and president of Count US IN and a commissioner on Indiana Disabilities Right, among other involvements.
“Count US IN’s mission, we’re the first nonpartisan, nonprofit, based in Indiana, that seeks to educate and empower and show our community that our voices matter and we seek to not only increase voting power and civic engagement, but we also specifically look to diversify as well,” Radziminski said.
Historically, she said, “we were freed from slavery in the 1860s, but I always think about how much work we still have to do, and the fight isn’t over. There’s still so much to celebrate, but I always see what’s the next step to make sure more people have access that more people can ensure that their voices are heard for social justice and social change.”
She said while “we were freed from slavery in the 1860s, women weren’t able to vote until the 1920s, but Black people and Black women weren’t able to vote until the 1960s. So can you imagine how long it has taken for us to acquire human rights? In 100 years after being freed from slavery, that’s when we were actually able to vote. So I don’t take that right lightly and I try to make sure I empower my community in everything I do.”
If anyone is interested, Radziminski said Count US IN has a voting rights coalition launching June 23 at 6 p.m. More information can be found at www.countusindiana.org.
