WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut — Community members in West Hartford are coming together this weekend to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the day enslaved Americans became free.
Over the two days, a series of events will honor Black pride and celebrate Black history in this country and in the town of West Hartford.
To kick off the celebration, local students along with the project directors of the Witness Stone Project – Dr. Tracey Wilson, Elizabeth Devine, and Denise deMello – will speak at 10 a.m. on Saturday to honor and recognize the slaves that helped build the West Hartford community.
The three co-founders of the Witness Stone Project told FOX61 News they created the project after learning through research about the dozens of enslaved Americans who were in West Hartford, but there was nothing to recognize them.
“As we started to dig more and more here in West Hartford, the West Division as it was called, we realized that there were some 77 enslaved people whom we found through church records, and probate documents,” Devine said. “We realized their voices were lost and our goal is to bring their voices forward.”
At the ceremony, students will give a presentation and short biography about the enslaved person they learned about during the school year and that person's stone will be laid in the cemetery.
Leaders of the community will be in attendance throughout the day. Co-Chair of the West Hartford Board of Education Lorna Thomas-Farquharson will be the keynote speaker for the afternoon and her daughter, Juliana Farquharson who started ‘Students Against Racism’ at Sedgwick Middle School will also speak too.
There will be a series of contests, vendors, DJs, food, and activities for everyone of all ages, even a mural revealing of the late civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Along with those activities, there will also be people who will be honored, Adrienne Billings-Smith, the committee chair of the Juneteenth event, said.
“We have some powerful figures who will be represented in our town and also people who have been first in the town of West Hartford,” Billings-Smith said. “Tammy Exum the first Black state representative to come from the West Hartford district and Judy Casperson who was the first Black Councilwoman and also Gertrude Blanks who was the first Black graduate from Hall high school.”
On Sunday there will be a church service at First Church of Christ Congregational on South Main Street at 10:00 a.m. followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside that will rename a piece of land that was named after slave owner Goodman Greene. The new name is Unity Greene.
Billings-Smith and other members of her organization – Concerned Parents of Color – felt it was time to recognize Juneteenth in the town.
“You need this acknowledgment of Black history but you need to know that Black history is not all brutal,” Billings-Smith said. “There are times we had plenty of history that we can acknowledge and celebrate and we need to start doing that.”
June 1, 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre but many were never taught in school what happened on that day.
Billings-Smith said people need to start learning more about Black history.
“We teach a minute about slavery but we don’t teach about the Tulsa massacre, and those are things that should be taught about,” Billings-Smith said.
Juneteenth is a recognized holiday in the town of West Hartford. President Joe Biden is expected to sign a bill declaring June 19 a federal holiday on Thursday.
“The West Hartford Town Council unanimously approved making Juneteenth an annual holiday here in West Hartford,” Gail Crockett, a member of the planning committee of the Juneteenth Celebration, said.
With the celebration spreading over the two days the hope is that residents will come to one of the events.
“We’re looking forward to having anyone and everyone that's interested even if you're not quite sure just please visit and show support,” Crockett said.
Billings-Smith hopes that history is learned throughout these two days and that all history is represented in the town equally going forward.
“I want them (residents) to take that and ensure that our kids are being taught this in school,” Billings-Smith continued. “I want them to go wow, I didn’t get to learn this but I sure wish my son or daughter gets to learn about this date because it’s an important date.”
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