The Marquee on Main lit up Friday night with music, dance, food and reunion for the kickoff of a weekend of celebration from the Quad City Juneteenth Committee.
For its fifth year, the organization brought together people from the quad cities of Crystal City, Festus, Herculaneum and Pevely to celebrate freedom and shared history.
Juneteenth, officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, marks the date in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the freedom of enslaved people, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation.
“I would consider it when America truly became free,” said Ernest Brown, chairman of the Quad City Juneteenth Committee. “At the end, what you’re celebrating is the freedom of the United States.”
Beyond serving as a celebration of freedom, the weekend events put on by the committee helped preserve African American history in Jefferson County. The soirée served as a fundraiser for Mount Zion Cemetery, a historic pre-Civil War Black graveyard in Festus.
Jean Gibbs, president of the Mount Zion Cemetery Board, said the cemetery carries personal meaning for her. Several of her ancestors are laid there, including her great-great-grandparents. The holiday allows Gibbs to reflect on the people who came before her.
“Because of Freedom Day, I look back and I think of those who died free,” Gibbs said. “It just means a lot to me how we are honoring them and their freedom.”
The yearly celebration brought together locals, but many others came from far away, returning home to connect with loved ones and neighbors. People came in from as far as California, Michigan and North Carolina for the festivities.
With so many community members from across generations gathered, Ron Herrington Jr. said it was the perfect chance to share history and educate young people.
Herrington, who is the president of the Douglass High School Alumni Association, is working to gather information and artifacts to open a local Black history museum focused on the school which served Black students during segregation, from 1939-1955. He wants new generations to learn about the history of those who came before them and said connecting with the people who lived that history is critical.
“My mom is 90 years old, and she’s one of the few survivors left,” Herrington said. “We want to get this stuff done. We don’t want this history to be forgotten.”
Organizers emphasized that the weekend’s events were designed to bring people together against generational and cultural gaps to learn and celebrate.
“It’s a weekend of nothing but fun and celebrating,” said Susan Harrison, secretary of the Quad City Juneteenth Committee. “It’s also about remembering what was going on on Juneteenth.”
Harrison asserts that history and celebration is for everyone to learn from and enjoy, regardless of age or background.
“A lot of these kinds of celebrations, they try to isolate it into something like a white celebration or a Black celebration,” she said. “Independence Day vs. Freedom Day. It’s for everybody, though. For the good of everybody.”
Information on future celebrations hosted by the committee can be found on its Facebook page.
See more photos here:
