A good day to enjoy freedom

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 10, 2007 | by KHARI JOHNSON THE GAZETTE

People of all ages and colors congregated in a field at Colorado Technical University on Saturday to celebrate Juneteenth, a "Second Independence Day."

Juneteenth is the celebration of the 1865 arrival of Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War was over and that all slaves were free. This was two years after President Abraham Lincoln declared most slaves free in the Emancipation Proclamation.

"Conservatives, liberals and moderates should be proud to celebrate Juneteenth, because it's a part of American history," said James Tucker, the event organizer.

"Anyone who doesn't celebrate their history is anti-American," Tucker said. Tucker played a seminal role in seeing Juneteenth recognized as a holiday in Colorado.

So did local Rep. Mark Cloer, who sponsored the bill three years ago and was in attendance Saturday.

Today, 25 states recognize or observe Juneteenth as a state holiday, according to the Web site of the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign, to which Tucker belongs. The group seeks to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

This, Tucker said, is the 16th annual celebration of Juneteenth in Colorado Springs, but the celebration began at the end of the Civil War.

Attendees Saturday were treated to a variety of music, from hiphop to blues to African drummers, as well as Panamanian folk dance and other selections.

Vendors sold food and art, and booths promoted everything from breast cancer awareness to health insurance.

Candice McKnight's booth was cluttered with books and pamphlets pointing people toward local black history. Books detailing the lives of Colorado Springs' first black settlers, as well as its black police officers, a school board member, a principal and other local legends were on display.

"This is what I have to do, this is what I need to do, this is my passion, as you can see," McKnight said. Her organization, the African American Historical and Genealogical Society of Colorado Springs, has helped thousands of black Americans learn to research their roots, some all the way back to Africa.

"Am I even related to these people?" McKnight said, recalling a family reunion she went to in 1998 that sparked her passion. In her search, she traced her family to her great-great-greatgrandmother Sallie Mack, who was a slave on a plantation in Texas in the early 1800s. Her descendants would eventually settle in Colorado Springs in the early 1900s.

Anthony Cordova, 52, is also a native Coloradan. Part Latino and American Indian, Cordova grew up in the Latino community. Cordova said he felt it was important to come out to celebrate Colorado Springs' diversity.

"People ought to support other people when you're doing something like this," Cordova said.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will host another Juneteenth celebration at Hillside Community Center next Saturday. Others nationwide will celebrate on the day generally recognized as Juneteenth, June 19.