Celebrating Freedom | Palatka Daily News, Palatka, Florida

Hundreds show up for inaugural Juneteenth event

Linda Wykoff, seated, of Interlachen listens as Simone Bridges of Goddess Food Factory talks about the company’s services during the Juneteenth event Saturday at the Family Life Center in Palatka.
A group of singers performs Saturday during the Juneteenth celebration at the Family Life Center in Palatka.
Steven Chandler plays the saxophone on an African-decorated stage Saturday during the Juneteenth Celebration at the Family Life Center.
Juneteenth event organizer La’Farrah Davis welcomes visitors to the celebration Saturday.
Anne Israel of Palatka talks about the uplifting environment of the Juneteenth celebration Saturday.
Positively Putnam FL

Palatka’s Juneteenth celebration exceeded the expectations of event organizer La’Farrah Davis.

Davis estimated about 250 people attended Saturday’s event at the Family Life Center, with residents visiting vendors inside the gymnasium as performers sang, played music and danced.

“It’s exciting to know we’re all under one umbrella,” Davis said while standing near a welcome sign at the event. “We’re supporting one another, patronizing vendors. Our vendors are not just all Black-owned businesses; it’s open to every ethnic group.

“We’re trying to bring unity to the community.”

Juneteenth marks the day Black slaves in Galveston, Texas, received word of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, from Union soldiers. The news of freedom came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in Southern states.

Saturday’s celebration happened two days after President Joe Biden signed into law a bill making June 19 a federal holiday. The city of Palatka also issued a proclamation regarding Saturday as Juneteenth, which was made an official holiday by the city in 2020.

While Davis welcomed the news of the federal holiday, she said African-Americans have always celebrated June 19.

“Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, but that doesn’t make us celebrate it even more or go harder to celebrate,” Davis said. “We’re still celebrating the same way we celebrated before. We’re still excited about those African-Americans who were given their freedom. I’m happy they took the time to make it a federal holiday, but we still would have celebrated even if it wasn’t a federal holiday.”

Tevel Adams, an organizer of the Peace in the Streets and Your Vote is Your Voice protests last summer in Palatka, was a guest speaker, giving the history behind Juneteenth. He said he was pleased with the support of Saturday’s event.

“We have maybe 40 tables and people are supporting not just African-American businesses but those from all different backgrounds,” Adams said.

Like Davis, Adams said Juneteenth would have been celebrated even if it had not been made a federal holiday.

“Yes, it does add to its significance, but we want systematic equity and equality as well,” said Adams, a board member of the Putnam Alliance for Equity and Justice.

Elise Weeks of Hawthorne, who is also a board member of the group, volunteered at the organization’s table set up at the event. She said the day was an important one to recognize.

“It’s an opportunity for us to celebrate the time in our history when all of the people who were U.S. citizens obtained the promises of the Constitution,” Weeks said.

Outside the gymnasium, event attendees visited several food trucks around the Family Life Center. Anne Israel of Palatka enjoyed the environment as she watched visitors come and go at the event.

“I live just around the corner and it’s amazing for me to experience such an uplifting event for the community,” Israel said. “I’m so happy to have it. It means courageousness and togetherness as family and friends. It’s just awesome.”

She said the celebration also meant progress and hope to her after Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday.

“I heard it last night and I went, ‘For real?’” Israel said. “I’m just very pleased.”