Alton has celebrated Juneteenth since 1991

(I only discovered it in 2017)

In 2017, Riverbender sent me to Killion Park to check out something called Juneteenth. It was a new word and concept for me, but it sounded like fun. I had recently learned about James Killion, after whom the park was named.

For those who are new to James Killion’s legacy, I learned about him from a book donated to me by Abe Lee Barham at my old office in the Riverbender building. Called 20th Century African American Leaders in Alton, it was credited to the Committee on Black Pioneers of the Alton Museum of History and Art. It was really penned by local black historian Charlotte Johnson, who did the research behind these profiles.

Killion was a local steelworker who fought hard to have a union. He was a Boy Scout leader, a member of Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and among the men who stormed Normandy during the D-Day invasion. Killion lived by the park while working at Laclede Steel, where he was their first black hire. He was a member of several community groups, including Alton’s Human Relations Commission, and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Killion helped bring public services to the Oakwood neighborhood and advocated their annexation into the City of Alton.

I bring this up so folks understand how essential Alton’s black history is to the DNA of this city. Anyone informed on Alton’s rich history of black leadership and civil rights activists should not be surprised Alton was celebrating Juneteenth ahead of the national curve.

This tradition was brought to our city by Joyce Elliott in 1991 when she vacationed in the beachside town of Galveston, Texas. Elliott discovered folks in Texas celebrated Juneteenth to honor the words of freedom being brought to Texas slaves by Union soldiers on horseback following the defeat of the Confederacy. As a meme I discovered today put it, however, human beings placed into bondage were hidden from their own emancipation for two entire years.

According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, nearly 20,000 troops alerted around 250,000 enslaved human beings they were declared free (as if a person’s freedom is reliant on the whims of a nation-state and not a basic right of existence). This did, in fact, occur in Galveston Bay, Texas. Juneteenth celebrations began there in 1866, one year after it occurred. By the 1920s, Juneteenth celebrations spread through the South through food festivals.

Texas proclaimed it a holiday in 1938, and made it legal in 1979. Currently, every U.S. state and the District of Columbia legally recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. Former U.S. President Joe Biden made it a federal holiday in 2021. While many states and cities are working to cancel their celebrations in the face of mounting white nationalism and the fascism it inspires being perceived as more politically powerful, it would take a lot more effort to end its status as a federal holiday.

Alton again celebrated Juneteenth last Saturday, keeping true to a 34-year-old tradition. Illinois is still gladly celebrating Juneteenth. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker officially recognized it as a state holiday the same time Biden did, on June 16, 2021. It appears that decision will stand for the foreseeable future.

A lot of things should be noted here. First of all, slavery may be perceived to be illegal, but the 13th Amendment still allows for prison slavery. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world with almost two million people in prison. This means nearly one in 140 adults in this country are in jail. As much as 37% of those incarcerated are black; this compares to roughly 13% of the population being black.

Unless you are one of those sick fucks who believes that someone’s skin color makes them more susceptible to being a criminal, then you probably realize that our prison system is built to carry on the legacy of chattel slavery. From the modern policing system to the courts to the judges and the jails, our nation has not yet rid itself of the vile roots of chattel slavery. Juneteenth should not just be a celebration of freedom for all Americans of slave ancestry, it should be a reminder to rid our nation of the vile wicked tendrils of its horrid past.

A better world is possible. We must face the darkness behind us to find the light ahead. Happy Juneteenth! May we all be liberated.