Minnesota celebrates Juneteenth
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Juneteenth celebrations are marking the state and national holiday, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Nearly two dozen people walked a 2.5-mile route through Grand Rapids as part of the Juneteenth Freedom Walk Thursday. It started at the historic Central School.
The distance symbolized the 2.5 years before all enslaved people were freed after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863.
Grand Rapids City Council member Molly MacGregor walked while holding a small, Juneteenth-style flag.
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“No matter where you live, it matters. And it matters if Grand Rapids is doing Juneteenth, and it matters if Bovey's doing it or if Minneapolis or Fort Worth, Texas,” she said.
The nonprofit KOOTASCA Community Action organized the event.
Event organizer Alice Moren said Juneteenth is a reminder that freedom in the U.S. has not always been immediate, equal, or fully realized.
“It calls us to look honestly at all systems, histories, and, and inequities that shape people's lives,” Moren said.
Juneteenth wasn't a federal or state holiday 30 years ago, when St. Cloud residents began marking the date when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received word that they were free.
The Rev. James Alberts, pastor of Higher Ground Church of God in Christ, had just moved to St. Cloud from Texas, where Juneteenth celebrations were a big deal. He and other members of the African American Male Forum in St. Cloud were trying to come up with a summer event.
"We were like, ‘Well, why don't y'all just celebrate Juneteenth?’ And the question around the room: ‘What's that?’” Alberts recalled. “There was shock and awe in my face."
Since then, St. Cloud's Juneteenth has steadily grown. A few years ago, it moved from a smaller park to Lake George to accommodate more people.
“So that everybody has an opportunity not only to celebrate but to learn,” Alberts said. “Because a lot of people here in the area that we live in don't even know what this is."
In the past few decades, St. Cloud's population has become more diverse, including growing Black and African immigrant communities. That diversity was reflected in Friday’s gathering.
"It's like a mosaic of so many different cultures and people who are coming to celebrate what Juneteenth represents,” said Javelia Morrison-Galimore, an international student at St. Cloud State University originally from Jamaica.
Since coming to the U.S., Morrison-Galimore said she's learned about the holiday's significance.
"It is a time when we honor those whose freedom was delayed and those whose dignity persisted, despite systems trying to deny them of that,” she said. “And of course, those who have trailblazed along the way to create cultivate space like this for future generations."
Lead organizer Buddy King said the event offers a chance for the St. Cloud community to show it can come together, despite past racial tensions.
“Are there things that we still need to work on? Yes,” King said. “But let's look at the progress we have made, and let's celebrate that. As long as there's still hope, that's what matters."
In the Twin Cities, the ANIKA Foundation will hold its fifth annual Juneteenth celebration. It's the third year celebrating at the state Capitol in St. Paul.
The event includes live music from both local and national artists, family activities and a market. It also includes an awards ceremony honoring community leaders, the Community Griot Awards.
“Many of these folks have devoted 30 years or more of their lives to serving the community whenever the community needs, so this is just a small way that we try to honor those that are doing great things,” organization founder Anika Robbins said.
The event is free and open to the public.
