Black History is Every Month: Why Juneteenth Celebrates the New Birth of Freedom; Sessions cites Bible passage used to defend
philip panaritis
"What were some of the first Juneteenth celebrations like? What food was served?
From the beginning to now, the food came from slave cuisine. One dish in particular was barbecue and the preparation and fixing of it harkens back to old days when a pit was dug, I would say about a foot deep, and it had saplings over it. They built a fire of oak and mesquite and whatever else that they wanted. They would place the coals on the floor of the pit and then on top of the pit, they would place a hog that had been killed, gutted and they would rotate its position. Starting off, the carcass would be cut-side down and skin side up and it would cook very, very slowly until the barbecuer would flip it.
Traditionally (cooking) was an all-night thing and they would be gathered by friends and sit around drinking spirited beverages. It emphasized the camaraderie and that barbecue would be the main dish. Then there was watermelon, too.
There was the strawberry pop. By any other name, it would be a picnic or Sunday dinner at its best. At the heart of it, just like turkey at Thanksgiving, the central entrée would be barbecue. And again, barbecue preparation has deep roots in slave culture.
How did Juneteenth celebrations spread out of Texas?
The movement of this celebration was part of a larger group of emancipation days across the south. The first movement, right around WWII, was westward. So where you had black families moving to California from east Texas, and southwest Arkansas and Oklahoma, to work in the shipyards, or to work in the airplane factories, then Juneteenth started cropping up in those states.
When Dr. King had the Poor People’s March and Ralph Abernathy promised King (who died April 4, 1968) that this march would be completed and it was. So they made it to Washington and they set up a camp on the mall. Everything that could go wrong did and they had to leave at the end of the summer. So how can you leave with some sense of honor? It was late June and there were people from all different states in that village for that summer, so they had a group from Texas and someone said ‘Why don’t we have a Juneteenth celebration,’ which again is a way to address poverty and freedom and harkening back to our past. They had this closing celebration, which was held on that day, and a large number of entertainers performed.
My theory is that these delegates for the summer took that idea of the celebration back to their respective communities. So I know, for example, there was one in Milwaukee, and looking at the newspapers after that summer, they started having regular Juneteenth celebrations. The Chicago Defender had an editorial that it should be a regular idea. My feeling is that because it was used to close the Poor Peoples Campaign that the idea and so forth was taken back by different participants in that march and it took root around the country. It has taken on a life of its own."
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