The Rev. Rickiah Wingfield said when she was asked to speak at the town of Elon’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration, her first instinct was to say no. During the event, she said she only knew basic information about the holiday and she was anxious speaking about issues of race to a group of people.
On June 19, the town of Elon hosted a Juneteenth celebration at Lawrence Slade Park, including games, food and music. Wingfield, who is the reverend at First Baptist Church which neighbors the park, spoke at the event on her own experience learning about Juneteenth.
Wingfield has only celebrated Juneteenth for the past couple of years and growing up didn’t know what the holiday meant, she said in her speech.
“If you had asked me as a child, what day do we use to celebrate independence and our freedom?” Wingfield said during the event. “I would have proudly told you July 4, because that was what I knew.”
Juneteenth, the name combining June and nineteenth, dates back to June 19, 1865, as that was when the last group of formerly enslaved people, in Galveston Bay, Texas, heard that former President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation — declaring freedom for people in slavery. Lincoln signed the proclamation over two years prior to the news spreading to the people of Galveston Bay.
While this was the formal end of slavery, Wingfield said this freedom was more of a gradual process with many restrictions. Jim Crow Laws restricted Black people in many ways; one of these ways was not being able to celebrate and gather in groups, limiting celebrations such as Juneteenth.
Juneteenth became a federally recognized holiday in 2021 and Wingfield said this holiday is about taking pride in Black culture while remembering all aspects of Black history, both negative and positive.
“I began to realize that this was a cycle of joy and pain that came with Juneteenth,” Wingfield said during the event. “The celebration — or the lack thereof at times — is centered around our country’s climate and the limited freedoms that we still have.”
Elon senior Darius Harris, town of Elon summer intern, said this event is important to have because many people’s experiences are similar to Wingfield’s and don’t know what Juneteenth is.
“A lot of people don't really understand what Juneteenth is,” Harris said. “It was kind of like an awareness type of thing to try and gather people, let them know about Juneteenth.”
Cindy Pettiford, owner of local business Cakes, etc. by Cindy, was at the event selling slices of cake and giving free samples. It is important for Pettiford to be involved in her community and at local events, especially at positive events such as Juneteenth, she said.
“I like to be a part of the community,” Pettiford said. “I don't want it to be a place. I want you to know who I am as a person.”
There is also still work to be done, Wingfield said. She hopes one day Juneteenth can also be recognized more on a state-level, she said. Currently, it is recognized as a “floating holiday” meaning only state workers who claim it has cultural, religious or personal significance have this day as a paid holiday.
“It is my hope that these celebrations will continue, but we have to be a part of the push to make that happen,” Wingfield said during the event. “We have got to be a part of those conversations and have those with our families to share the stories of the history and with our youth. We have to be the ones to share because we can't count on the school systems to learn it more than the two or three lines that I may have read as a child.”