Celebrating the 160th Anniversary of Juneteenth Day
Black Resilience: Collectively We Still Rise!
Madison’s Juneteenth Day Committee: Jacquelyn Hunt (l-r), Janine Stephens-Hale, Rick Flowers, Annie Weatherby-Flowers, Sonia Spencer, Mona Winston, Shari Davis, Corninda Rainey-Moore, Roxanne Johnson
by Jonathan Gramling
It was 36 years ago that Madison held its first Juneteenth Day celebration. The effort was led by Annie Weatherby-Flowers and Mona Adams Winston and a group of committed volunteer committee members. Milwaukee has had a profound impact on Juneteenth. The late Dr. Ron Meyers, who led the effort to have Juneteenth declared state and national holidays, grew up in Milwaukee, graduated from UW-Madison medical school and practiced medicine in Tchula, MS. And it led Weatherby-Flowers to establish Madison’s celebration.
“That’s actually when I met Annie, by doing Juneteenth,” Winston said. “She had gone to Milwaukee’s for years. I had gone a couple of times. We thought it would be a really nice, family celebration for the community to have Juneteenth brought to Madison and try to have as many educational aspects of Black History brought to the celebration. Not only could African American people learn more about our history, but for everyone in the community to come out. We wanted everyone to feel welcome to come out to Juneteenth.”
“We were in the middle of responding to HIV-AIDS and the crack cocaine epidemic at MICCSA,” said Weatherby-Flowers who worked at MICCSA, which was Juneteenth’s fiscal agent. “We were looking at the historical ways to celebrate being Black. There was all of the negative press, all the negative everything here was about crime, drug addiction, and teenage pregnancy. It wasn’t a lot of positive things. And so what was missing was we didn’t connect. I was from Milwaukee. So Dr. Finn Lacy and Lloyd Barbee, you could go to Juneteenth. You could go to church together and things like that. But they didn’t have that here. And so I said, ‘We need a Juneteenth.’ And Diane Winfrey was from Milwaukee as well. She said, ‘Go for it.’ We talked to McArthur Weddle out of Milwaukee who planned that one for 30 something years. We got $1,000 from Park Bank and $500 from WT Rogers.”
The first Juneteenth was held in Penn Park. It was a modest beginning.
“We always said that the first one was like a church social between Fountain of Life and Mt. Zion,” Winston said with a chuckle. “That’s just about how it started. People were from each of our churches. And then it grew from there. We were able to get some sponsorships from the larger corporations and banks in Madison. That helped us be able to expand it.”
“We brought in national acts, but we promote and showcase the best in our community,” Weatherby-Flowers said. “We also make it historically correct. And it’s wonderful to see the young people who were in the NIP Dancers now leading organizations here in Madison. People remember coming to Juneteenth. I remember that one year, there was the basketball league based in the community centers. The kids said, ‘We can’t go to that tournament because it’s Juneteenth weekend. That was so important for the young people to be at Juneteenth. And still those folks are now bringing their kids. And now, some of us are bringing our grandkids.”
Juneteenth continued to grow over the years.
“Johnny Winston Jr. did the basketball tournament for a while,” Weatherby-Flowers said. “Stephan Blue did it first and then Johnny. At one point, Vernon Hill who does a lot of things in the AAU and he did it for a couple of years. This year, we’re doing pickleball. Jimmy Cheffin and Madison College are sponsoring it. Last year, we had Jamal Roberts as our headliner along with The Stooges Brass Band, a young New Orleans brass band. But this year, we are really going to focus on local talent. We have COPA and Greg Doby will bring in some of the Christian rappers and some of our local performers. We don’t have the old timers like The Techniques and the Moss Brothers and Leotha Stanley’s gospel group. We’re looking at our young people. We have to keep evolving.”
And the observance of Juneteenth expanded beyond the confines of Penn Park.
“Annie had some really great ideas about doing some things with the schools,” Winston said. “I was able to do an observance with a company during lunchtime. We took information and explained what Juneteenth is and why it is important. And it just kind of spread from there where some companies like American Family had us come out on Juneteenth Day. That was really, really nice. I think after the word got around, as people saw that it was more than just a south side event even though it was held on the south side, that it really was for everyone. And the more that they saw that, the more they felt comfortable coming out and we welcomed them. We welcomed everyone.”
The 36th annual Juneteenth Day celebration will be held on Saturday, June 21st at Penn Park. A transition in leadership is happening this year as Weatherby-Flowers continues to guide the spirit and soul of the event while Janine Stephens-Hale from the Center for Black Excellence and Culture takes care of the logistics. And in line with tradition, the celebration begins with the parade.
“We are staging at the Madison Labor Temple at 10 a.m.,” Stephens-Hale said. “And then we will start the parade around 10:45 a.m. The parade will go up Wingra Drive, making a right on Park Street and walking all the way up to Park Street until we get to Buick Street and take a left and walking down to Penn Park. We’re going the opposite direction of years passed because in past years, we have staged at the FOL parking lot. But with the Center being built and there is major construction going on, we had to find a different location this year. The Madison Labor Temple parking lot will be large enough to handle the number of people who will be participating in the parade.”
And then the celebration kicks off at noon at Penn Park where the parade ends.
“There will be lots of great music and various kids activities,” Stephens-Hale said. “We’re partnering with the Madison Reading Project, Women in Focus, Madison Children’s Museum, and the Madison Downtown Library. There will be lots of programming that will be taking place for kids. In addition, we’ll have a Wellness Tent, which will feature different instructors who will be doing different things like yoga and WERQ. There will also be various activities discussing wellness. We have the traditional Gospel Tent. It will be lead by the African American Council of Churches. They will partner with various Black churches around the community to put together a program for that day. We’ll also be featuring the Heritage area, which will be supported by Fabu Carter. That’s actually going to be taking place at the UW South Madison Partnership Office. Rather than being onsite, we’ll be using the golf carts to take people over to the Heritage area. Fabu will have so many dynamic things happening there.”
There will be a pickleball tournament sponsored by Madison College. There is the Main Tent where a lot of the music goes down led by the Juneteenth Band. And there is Old Skool.
“We have our Old Skool area, which has traditionally been held under the pavilion,” Stephens-Hale said. “It will be managed by Jackie Hunt and Michelle Bozeman. There will be card games as well as an Old Skool DJ. Ms. Bozeman will be leading some line dance lessons.”
While there will be a lot going on at Penn Park on Saturday, it is important to remember that Juneteenth is about freedom. Celebrate your freedom!