A local organization in the Quad Cities is commemorating Black Americans' emancipation from slavery with its annual Juneteenth Festival in Davenport on Saturday, June 20th.
When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, freedom was not immediate for the nearly four million Black Americans held in bondage. However, the war executive order dealing with secessionist states did change the trajectory of the Civil War as Black Americans made way to Union lines, many of them signing up for service, some estimate over 200,000. The advantage for the Union was not only the addition of men to the front lines but also the loss of slave labor in the South, which decimated an already struggling economy.
Once the war ended in 1865, word traveled slowly through the secessionist states, with Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, being the last informed in June that year that they were free.
“June 19th is the day that's celebrated because that was the day that Union soldiers finally marched into Galveston, Texas, in 1865, when it was 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and put into effect. So two and a half years later, is when Union soldiers finally marched into Galveston, Texas, to announce to them that the war was over, slavery was no more,” President and CEO of Friends of MLK, Ryan Saddler, said in an interview with WVIK on June 4th. Friends of MLK is holding the festival.
“And the first Juneteenth celebration was actually in 1866,” Festival Coordinator Tracy Singleton said in an interview with WVIK on June 12th. “So a year later, they had a celebration with food and music and just a celebration, and it was anchored by the community and the churches. So over the years, it obviously has started to spread across the country.”
Here in the Quad Cities, Saddler believes it has been celebrated in some fashion since the late 1860s; however, exact dates are difficult to determine.
“[A]n organization called United Neighbors was, as far as I know, the only organization that celebrated what I'll say modern Juneteenth celebrations,” Saddler said. “There is some, some inklings in history that show that there were mentions, I'm not sure of how large a celebration throughout America, in different communities in the Quad Cities, being one of those in the 1920s and 30s, that a Juneteenth celebration may have been talked about, celebrated in some shape, form, or fashion.”
His organization took over the coordination of a Juneteenth festival in 2017. A big part of the festival is retelling the history of Black Americans’ pursuit of equality under the law, an ongoing struggle.
“I often remind people we're not that far removed from the conditions and understanding, and the effects of slavery. I am a grandchild of a sharecropper,” Saddler said. “Both of my grandparents were sharecroppers in Mississippi, and finally left sharecropping in the 1940s. We're not that far away from the residual effects of slavery.”
Sharecropping, following the end of slavery, perpetuated many of the same inequities for farmers, who were under contracts with the landowner and received a portion of the crops once harvested. Many farmers were pushed into debt and became beholden to a system that maintained a cycle of economic dependency.
Saddler said his family recorded his grandfather’s story about working on a plantation under the sharecropping system.
“He recounts the last three years of the crop that he produced and going back to the plantation owner with that crop and being told that he did not produce enough,” Saddler said. “And so he had. He talks about moving from one plantation to another throughout his time. And finally, he was reluctant; my grandmother, I think was most reluctant to their dying day in telling the story because he left in the middle of the night. He had already left one plantation and was found, and had to give back the mule and wagon he took, because they said it wasn't his and he thought he had earned it, so he had to give that back. So he left in the middle of the night. And I believe it was 45, 1945, and he made his way to Iowa.”
Singleton said local historians will be sharing stories on the history of Juneteenth. She notes this year’s festival is probably the biggest, with a record number of vendors.
“We have our kid zone that provides kid activities, you know, not so much history related, but just that sense of community,” Singleton said. “We have our stage in the courtyard with local entertainment, and then we just have all these vendors, and it's a combination of retail, resource, lots of good food. So there's, for me, I think what I'm most excited about is seeing the community come together for this event.”
The Juneteenth Festival is being held on 2nd Street between Harrison and Brady Streets in Davenport from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 20th. Admission is free.
“I didn't learn about Juneteenth until I was in my 20s. And that's when I found out about it, because it wasn't taught. And I think, like, if you think back to like maybe a tradition that your family does, but no one else knows about it. That's Juneteenth. Like it's important to you, but not everyone else knows about it,” Singleton said. “And so really that's the goal and why we continue, you know, our— we're a very small committee of two, it's Ryan and me, right? But we work hard, and we're both very busy people, but this is something that we have to do. As I said, when it was the thought that it might not happen, as busy as he was, as busy as I was, it was still important enough that we said, okay, we have to do this. It's not a fundraising event. It's, it's not an aware— well, it's an awareness, you know, but this is strictly a community event to educate people and to celebrate a part of history, not just our history, but history in general.”
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