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.”

The post St. Joseph to celebrate Juneteenth with community march to Kolb Park first appeared on SJO Daily.

By Dani Tietz
dani@sjodaily.com

Hundreds of protesters came to St. Joseph’s Peaceful Protest for Equality Friday. 

Standing on the corner of IL-150 and Main Street, those holding Black Lives Matter signs with their fists in the air were oftentimes greeted with honks and praise for taking a stand against racism.

A few passerbys voiced their disapproval by flipping the group off or putting a thumbs down out the window. One voice yelled, “So you want to get rid of the police?”

Protesters said that they were not interested in getting rid of the police. Instead, their purpose was to let their friends and neighbors of color know that they are valued within the St. Joseph community.

St. Joseph-Ogden alumni Grace Wilson-Danenhower shared her story of moving to St. Joseph.

She and her sister, Clare Smith, lived with their mother, who is white. The girls said that their mother and the girls were welcome on the cul-de-sac until a neighbor brought over a soup, and Clare’s father, who is black, answered the door.

“(The neighbor) didn’t say one word to (Clare’s) father,” Grace said. “She didn’t open her mouth, handed him the soup and walked away. (The neighbor) was in shock. How could there be a black man, a male, to move in next to them?”

The family, with two mixed-race children, noticed that the block they grew up on was no longer as vibrant as it was before they moved. They had been told that neighbors would always have parties, but after they purchased the home, those gatherings ended.

“It slowly became evident that they did not accept us for what our family was,” she said.

Grace said that she wasn’t at the protest as a leader, but because children of color who grew up in St. Joseph were asked to share their experiences with the crowd.

Clare, who graduated from St. Joseph-Ogden in 2019, shared her story about being in a child growth and development class at the high school. There were four black students in the class, but only one black baby. 

The black students were asked to sign up for a weekend with the black baby.

“They only had one baby girl, which was black,” Clare said. “I, personally, want a son. So I asked, ‘Can I have a white baby?’ And (the teacher) was like, ‘That’s not realistic. And I was like, ‘Lady.’ 

“She basically told me that even if I had a kid with a white guy that my kid would be black. And this baby was way darker than me. 

“I didn’t think the baby looked like me.”

Clare said that she hopes that students in the future don’t have to go through what she did.

“They should have light-skin babies, (Asian) babies; but they only have white and black.”

Grace added that even if the district can only have white and black babies for students, then all students should have the option to choose a baby they want to care for, regardless of race. 

“If someone gave you a baby, would you throw it out, just because it was a certain color that you didn’t want?” Grace asked.

Twenty-seven year old St. Joseph resident Shelby Stevenson offered her perspective on recently moving from Urbana to the area with her two children.

Changing schools, going from a diverse environment to a community which is predominately white,  it was difficult for Shelby to put her oldest, a second-grade student, into St. Joseph Elementary.

As a black woman with two children whose skin tone is different, Shelby wanted to find a community that would treat both girls and her diverse family equally.

“(My oldest daughter) is one of nine blonde-haired blue-eyed kids in her classroom,” Shelby said. 

“(My youngest daughter) will most likely be the only black kid in her class when she goes to school.”

“That makes me uncomfortable because I’ve been the only black kid in a class before. I don’t want her to be pointed out or feel like she’s got no friends. “I want her to know that she has support and that she doesn’t have to feel different here.”

Listening to Alec Ballard talk about growing up in the St. Joseph community since he was four or five years old, also helped put Shelby’s mind at ease. 

“I don’t have any complaints because the stuff that was dealt out was playful, there wasn’t anything bad about it,” he said. “You guys have been good to me.”

Alec said his mother, who died nearly two decades ago, would be proud of the protesters. 

“She’d be proud of how you all treated us and had taken care of us,” he said. “I think she’d be really proud of you all.” 

Growing up, Alec didn’t see himself as different than his peers. 

“To me (skin color) didn’t matter,” he said. “I mean, I saw you guys the same way as I saw myself. We’re all who we are. 

Friday’s protest showed Shelby that the community would embrace her diverse family. 

“I just cried because now I feel so much more comfortable sending her knowing that there’s like an entire community that actually feels the same way that we do,” Shelby said.

Seeing four white men stand on the same corner earlier in the week, protesting the death of George Floyd and racism in America, Shelby said that her heart lit up.

“I cried because I didn’t think that that would happen in a town like this,” she said.

“We have neighbors who haven’t even waved to us yet. Just seeing that there was actual support here and seeing that there’s people that actually believed in the cause that I believe in, that meant the world.

“Now I’m comfortable with sending (my youngest) to school here.”

Shelby said that racism is taught. 

“I’m mixed race by white privilege, my whole family is white,” she said. “I didn’t think I was different until other people pointed it out. 

“What we can learn, we can unlearn.”

Part of unlearning goes back to understanding that people of color can have children with different skin tones. 

Shelby took her oldest daughter to Pensacola with her ex-husband, who was black. She was questioned if the girl was her daughter. 

Oftentimes, Sunday school teachers won’t let Shelby pick up her daughter after service because their skin tone is different.

Both Clare and Shelby were surprised to see a diversity of ages in the crowd as they protested. Shelby said that younger generations are teaching the older generations. 

“I think that people are talking to their parents and being open,” Shelby said.

Still, Clare said that as she reached out to many of her peers through social media, some said that they could not come because their parents would not allow them to or because they had to work, even though she witnessed cars full of those same people coming through the four-way stop during the protest.

While standing on the north side of IL-150 holding a sign that read, “Love Overcomes,” Clare was flipped off by a man that she held the door for at the Jack Flash. 

“I have white friends; I have my black friends; I have my mixed friends,” she said. “I love them, not because of their color, I love them for their personality.”

Love is also the message that protest organizer Jon Arteaga wanted people to leave with Friday.

“I thank these people for standing up and showing you who they are. I love them. I don’t care if nobody else does, I freaking love them,” Jon said. 

He also said that the protest should be the beginning of a long-burning fire. Grace asked Jon to read a few points that protesters would like to see changed in the St. Joseph, Ogden and Prairieview School Districts.

“Like (Grace) said, it starts with the kids,” Jon said. “It starts with the parents raising those kids. 

“We really want more education about black lives in our schools. It doesn’t matter if there is only one black kid in that class, every child should know what oppression is, how to recognize it and how to stop it.

“We would like to end zero-tolerance disciplinary actions and implement restorative justice.

“We would like the school administration to hire more black teachers.

“We would like to mandate Black History, it should never be an elective. 

“And the last very large, very, very important point, we would like to fund counselors, not cops in that school.”

The post St. Joseph protest centered around storytelling, love and acceptance first appeared on SJO Daily.

Wednesday began as any typical Wednesday for St. Joseph’s Jon Arteaga . 

He woke up at his mom’s house, just sitting around.

But on this Wednesday, there was a spark inside him, suggesting that he needed to do something to show that people in St. Joseph support the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I had gone to the protest in Champaign on Monday,” Arteaga said. “I just thought that it was just such an important thing to have such a peaceful protest after the looting that happened on Sunday. The juxtaposition of the two was just so powerful.”

“I thought, why does it have to end in Champaign? It needs to go farther than that.”

Arteaga notified his parents that he would go out to the four way stop of IL-150 and Main Street to peacefully protest.

The 2014 graduate of St. Joseph-Ogden High School, where 96-percent of students were white, said that since returning home after being gone for five years sees changes happening in the community. According to the Illinois Report Card, the student population at SJ-O is more diverse than when Arteaga graduated: the student population is currently 93-percent white.

The five hours that Arteaga spent outside with a few of his classmates had its discouraging moments. Some people passing by held their hands out the window with a thumbs down. But, David said that the response was overwhelmingly positive.

“The support was just mind blowing to me,” Arteaga said. “I just really didn’t realize how many allies there are in this town. So I was just very overwhelmed with the amount of love that we got.”

“A ton of people just drove by to raise their fists in solidarity. They dropped off water and snacks. Many people were like, ‘I wish I could join you, but I have to go to work.’” It was very heartwarming for sure and getting that response on social media just immediately made me realize that people want to protest, they want to do these things, they just need somebody to organize them.”

A conversation in a local Facebook page, St. Joseph, IL-Information & Community Events showed Arteaga that there was a desire to have something more formal planned so that others could congregate for the same reasons.

The St. Joseph Peaceful Protest for Equality will be held on June 5  from 5 to 8 p.m. at the four-way stop on the side of the street that is owned by the St. Joseph-Ogden School District.

Being a white man organizing this protest has been difficult, though. 

“This isn’t about me,” he said.

Over the last 12 hours Arteaga has reached out to people of color to see if they wanted to join forces with him to organize the event or speak during the protest. 

“We’re currently in talks with trying to figure out who our speakers will be,” he said. “Of course, we want people of color, particularly black people to be our speakers because we don’t want to speak for them. 

“As it stands right now we don’t have anybody. We’ve been reaching out. People are very intimidated, they don’t want to, or they feel pressured, and we don’t want them to feel like that either.”

Arteaga said that he has found comfort, though, from the willingness of black residents encouraging him and helping him plan the event. 

“I’m not speaking for them,” he said. 

“That’s not my position. My position is to have my privilege be their weapon, to be their megaphone.”

“I value black voices above my own. And that’s something that I want to make sure is at this protest. I’m working so hard to find people (of color).”

A few of Arteaga ’s classmates who identify with more than two races are working behind the scenes.

“They’re giving us valuable insight. They’re helping to inform our decisions,” Arteaga said.

“They have told us that it would be okay for us to speak there, but only speak on how white people can do better.”

An African American woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, also connected with Arteaga to say that he is doing the right thing; the same thing she and others have worked on doing in St. Joseph for decades.

“Apparently a white male was what was required to break through this wall that she’s been trying to break so many times for 30 years,” Arteaga said. 

Although Arteaga is currently focused on the event that will take place in 24 hours, he also knows that any protest just needs to be a beginning point for real change. 

After leaving St. Joseph-Ogden, Arteaga went on to study literature at Illinois State University. He had his sights set on returning to his hometown to teach English. 

“When I started making this protest tomorrow so many people of color reached out to me personally and said that they just really really want us to address the school. They want to make sure that their kids are safe and that they are represented in the coursework.”

An avid reader, Arteaga believes that part of the answer can be found through literature.

“You don’t have to be reading all of these dead white authors all the time,” he said. “They can be substituted with all of these diverse authors with Queer authors,Black authors, Latino authors. We can diversify. I think changing that up will have a little bit of a ripple effect; that’ll open people’s minds.”

Friday’s event will include a poem by Langston Hughes, a Black American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist.

Arteaga believes that St. Joseph and Ogden residents working together towards changing the systemic racism that continues to be prevalent both nationwide and at the local level could be the next moves.

This afternoon Arteaga connected with St. Joseph Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges to hear her thoughts and vision for the community. 

“There have been so many changes that have occurred since I’ve been gone, so I really want to know where she’s at,” he said. 

“Now that I moved back home and plan on living here for a while, I’m wanting to get a grasp on how the community is, where our leadership’s mind is at, and how they feel about the types of issues.”

He was also hoping that the conversation would put her mind at ease about his intentions with the protest. 

With fears that there may be looting and rioting like Sunday’s events in Champaign in rural towns and with rumors that groups from larger cities, like Chicago, would stop in small towns in East Central Illinois as they travel from Champaign to Danville, Arteaga wants the community to know that what he has planned will be peaceful.

St. Joseph Jim Page, who works for ILEAS (Illinois Law Enforcement Alert System), re-iterated that the rumors of Antifa coming to small communities are unwarranted.

“I can tell you that one of our biggest challenge is tracking down and separating false Internet rumors from actual intelligence. While anything is possible – as far as we know, it is not true,” Page wrote Monday.

“Having said that, in these challenging times it is always best to be prepared and watchful. Keep an eye on your neighbors, pay attention to your surroundings – all things that we should be doing every day anyway.”

Arteaga said his message is peace, though.

“Even in the detail of the event itself on Facebook I put, ‘If you see anybody acting violent or speaking violently, tell them to stop. Tell them that’s not okay.’

“We want this protest to be peaceful and impactful,” he said.

It is not lost on Arteaga that the world is also still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He has instructed everyone to wear masks and socially distance during the event. 

Currently, Arteaga is looking for donations of water, snacks, hand sanitizer and masks. He also asks that people bring signs, one for themselves and one for someone else.

“We need this to be loud,” he said.

Through this protest, Arteaga wants people of color to know that St. Joseph and Ogden are lifting them up. 

“We should be doing everything we can to make them feel they’re safe so that they can live the American dream that everybody wants to live.”

The post St. Joseph Peaceful Protest for Equality to be held on June 5 first appeared on SJO Daily.