BY DANI TIETZ
dani@sjodaily.com
Historical dates don’t always reflect reality.
For example, children learn that slavery was abolished in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
But, because of the lack of Union soldiers in the Confederate state of Texas, approximately 250,000 persons were still enslaved, according to the History Channel. The proclamation, which stated “that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free” was not followed in Texas until June 19, 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Texas to announce that the Civil War and slavery had ended.
Known to many African Americans as Independence Day, the day when enslaved Texans foud out they had been free for the two years prior, June 19 date became known as Juneteenth.
It’s a word that the St. Joseph’s Jon Arteaga recently learned.
Arteaga, who organized the St. Joseph Peaceful Protest for Equality on June 5 in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, said that the whole picture wasn’t painted for him as a student when the abolition of slavery was taking place.
“A lot of that history is overlooked,” he said.
“I didn’t even know about it until people started mentioning it with this movement that’s been happening “I’m just like, holy cow, this is really important. And I think it’s very important for us to highlight that especially in our community.”
After the June 5 protest, Arteaga joined forces with SJOnward, a racial equity group that was formed in 2017, but lost steam after hitting some roadblocks. Organizer Kelly Skinner reached out to Arteaga, asking him to become part of the leadership team.
The protest led to at least 80 new members in the SJOnward group, doubling their numbers.
With Skinner, Arteaga and others in the St. Joseph community working together, SJOnward now plans to host events every few weeks to keep the conversation going. The first event will be St. Joseph’s first Juneteenth Peace Walk & Community Rally on June 19 from 6 to 8 p.m.
“Juneteenth is widely accepted among the black community as an independence day, their freedom day,” Arteaga said. “We wanted to elevate that and kind of celebrate with them. This is an event that deserves to be celebrated, it should be a holiday. It should be something where people come together and talk about things that need to be talked about.”
The Juneteenth Peace Walk & Community Rally will begin on the south lawn of St. Joseph-Ogden High School where the Peaceful Protest was held. The group will march down Main Street to the St. Joseph Municipal Building where they will observe a moment of silence to remember the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that George Floyd endured before he passed away after having an officer’s knee on his neck as he laid on the ground.
The group will then move on to Kolb Park where speakers will share their stories and perspective.
Community members like Sophie Gallo have made music and information less of a task by providing a microphone and speaker system. The group was also able to secure a generator.
St. Joseph-Ogden’s History Teacher Marshall Schacht will begin by talking about how black history is framed in textbooks and how it gets marginalized or abbreviated in lessons. He will also share additional information about the history of Juneteenth.Synthia Sydnor, a St. Joseph resident, will talk about her experiences growing up in St. Joseph and sundown towns. Then Heather will talk about her experiences as a bi-racial couple.
While the event will touch on some topics like upstaging and backstage and systemic racism, Arteaga said that SJOnward is already looking at smaller events and group settings where people can ask questions and have discussions about racism and racial equity.
Skinner plans to end the event with asking community members to make a verbal commitment to moving forward in the movement towards equality.
“A lot of the most effective times when people change their behaviors is when they do a public declaration of ‘this is something I’m going to change,’ Arteaga said. “Who knows how many people actually do it, but we hope that a lot of people do.”
SJOnward is also making the commitment to move forward with bi-weekly events that will focus on education, events, book groups, small groups and working with the school district to make effective changes.
“We can teach our community as much as we want, we can hold endless amounts of events but if we don’t make real change, nothing’s actually going to change; we need to change the systems that are in place.”
