Decatur Il Newspaper

Poetry, dance bring forth spirit of Juneteenth celebration kickoff at Central Park

WHAT: 18th annual Decatur Juneteenth/National Freedom Day celebration of the end of slavery

WHERE: Decatur's Central Park

TODAY'S SCHEDULE:

- 11 a.m. Emancipation parade from the Ameren Illinois parking lot, 370 S. Main St.

- Noon military ceremony honoring the United Service Organizations, or USO

- 12:30 to 9 p.m., vendors and musical performances including those by Kaotic Drumline of Chicago, Fantastic Jones Singers of Springfield, saxophonist Jimmy Walker of Springfield and Juan Chambers of Champaign

FUNDRAISER EXTENDED: Donations for USO accepted today at Central Park, all Hickory Point Bank & Trust and Soy Capital Bank & Trust locations and the African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society of Illinois Museum, 314 N. Main St.

FOR MORE: Call Evelyn Hood, 358-8912.

DECATUR - The first Juneteenth celebration took place in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 - the day a Union regiment landed with word the Civil War was over and the slaves were free.

The news may have taken two months to get there, but 146 years later, it's still worth celebrating.

Kicking off Decatur's festivities in Central Park on Friday evening was the music of the Motown Showcase, but the stirring poetry of Maya Angelou and the flowing movement of a mime praise team also expressed the exhilaration people's ancestors must have felt.

"Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides," Ada Owens read from the stage. "Just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise."

Moments before, four girls from the Church of the Living God, Temple No. 2, ran before the crowd barefoot in long colorful skirts to the gospel song, "Back to Eden."

Marylynn Foster, public relations representative for the African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society of Illinois Museum in Decatur, reminded her audience that slaves used to trade signals about when they could escape through the songs they sang.

"Music just came up in us, but we are also intellectually inclined," Foster said. "Every day you're going to put your hand on something that was invented by a black person."

Crowned Miss Juneteenth on Friday evening for her winning essay was Krysten Fuller-Bean, 16, who will be a junior this fall at MacArthur High School.

Mark Fuller, marketing director for the museum, said the freedoms won by the Civil War came from great sacrifice, by black and white soldiers alike. "They fought so there would one day be a Martin Luther King and a President Obama," he said.

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