An event held over the weekend in downtown Rochester was designed to both celebrate the Juneteenth holiday and talk about its significance.
The Saturday event at The Strong National Museum of Play included a ceremony to pay tribute to elders in the community that have led by example and paved the way for many people in Rochester.
A spokesperson for the festival, Rashad Smith, said he’s especially grateful for an elder in his life, his late grandmother.
“My grandmother was my leader, my hero, and she passed in 2021,” Smith said. “And she's now my guardian angel. When I take the things, the lessons that she taught me, the ‘whoopings’ that she gave me, the knowledge and the power that she instilled in me.”
Smith said that Saturday’s ceremony “was really a profound moment” to witness the elders in the Rochester community, Black leaders, who he said “paved the way.”
The president and CEO of the Rochester Area Community Foundation, Simeon Banister, is a member of the Greater Rochester Martin Luther King Jr. Commission and the Juneteenth planning committee.
Banister said that while many people focus on Juneteenth as a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of African Americans in Texas learning they were free of slavery, the day also has local relevance.
“Think about the folks in Galveston, Texas, when Gordon Granger came in to enforce the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation,” things were not all of a sudden fixed, Banister said. "Things did not overnight get better. The circumstances and violence and bondage continued to persist, yet those folks found ways to fight for their agency and if that’s not a lesson for us in Rochester today, I don’t know what is.”
There were Juneteenth activities throughout the region over the weekend and scheduled for Monday as well, which is the actual national holiday. Juneteenth was made a national holiday in 2021.
The Rochester Museum and Science Center ishosting an event on Monday that includes food trucks, a Black-owned business bazar, and performances. That runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
