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‘It represents freedom.’ Celebrate Juneteenth in Macon with these events

Before George Fadil Muhammad helped organize the first Juneteenth Freedom Festival in Macon in 1993, he didn’t know much about the holiday.

The Kwanzaa Cultural Access Center started celebrating Kwanzaa in 1992, and Muhammad said he learned about Juneteenth the following January and decided to have a festival.

“It means remembering the sacrifice that my ancestors have made for me to have the opportunities to build today, in my lifetime, to leave a legacy for the generations to come. It means giving honor to those who really, really suffered, really really had a very, very difficult life and in spite of that, achieved great things and persevered,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad, the co-founder of the festival and of Georgia Juneteenth Week, wanted the festival to be an opportunity to educate children about slavery and Black history that isn’t taught in schools, he said.

“I’m very proud. I’m very excited about looking into who I really am and who my people are and it’s just a good time to be able to come together to be better educated,” he said. “There are a lot of very wonderful lessons in the Juneteenth story or in the perspective of freedom, what freedom means to all people and freedom as a prerequisite for real life, true living. You must truly have freedom to have the potential and the opportunity to really fully live your life to the fullest and we just have to keep striving toward that.”

What does Juneteenth mean to you?

Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, many slaves were not aware they had been free until months later, said Tonja Khabir, a community activist.

“For me, Juneteenth is really about freedom,” she said. “I definitely always want to, I guess be inspired by my ancestors and what they went through to ensure that everything I do is just uplifting.”

Kevin “Scene” Lewis, a local artist, said he typically spends Juneteenth at festivals creating artwork, and he hopes his work inspires people.

“Juneteenth for me, it’s just acknowledgment of the history that our ancestors went through, as far as emancipation and basically just kind of illustrated how they weren’t in the know. There were so many slaves, up to two years later, after the proclamation that did not know,” he said.

Weston Stroud, a community activist, said he grew up attending the Real Talk Hip Hop Summit at the Douglass Theatre for Juneteenth and routinely attends the festival and other community events for the holiday.

“It’s the timeframe in which we look at the emancipation of African people, but to me especially, it’s really like a global time for the Black diaspora and a way to unite over a common experience,” he said. “It’s a uniting period and moment for people who have a similar narrative of their history here in America.”

There is so much Black history for people to be proud of, Stroud said, and he hopes Juneteenth brings awareness to that history.

“We can have a broader conversation about the influence, the impact or the intellectual property rights of African descended people in America and how impactful and how huge it’s been,” he said. “I think that’s really the focus of Juneteenth, for me, and I would hope that most people start having that type of conversation.”

Tiara Ponce, a local artist and activist, said having the Juneteenth holiday recognized is really important to her.

“It represents freedom. It represents knowledge. The thought of so many people having that freedom and not being aware of it is something that, we say, ‘Oh Juneteenth is such a long time ago,’ but Juneteenth happens to people literally every single day,” she said. “That freedom, that epiphany, that moment of, ‘Did you know that you are free from that?’ is something that is monumental of course for Black culture, but it goes further into the American culture of us constantly having to free ourselves on all sides.”

What should white people know about the holiday?

Muhammad said everyone is welcome to the Juneteenth festival to learn about history and culture.

“I definitely would like white people to start coming to the festival, and to start looking at the festival as putting yourself in our shoes. Start putting yourself in our shoes, try as much as you can,” he said. “It’s not a matter of being guilty. It’s not a matter of walking around like people are attacking you, but come and feel what it feels like, as much as you can, the struggle that Black people have gone through, and hopefully it will help our relationships to be better.”

Juneteenth is a day of unity and should be celebrated by all people, said Khabir.

“This history is lost on all of us for that matter, and as a result, moving into the future is even more difficult, and so I wish people would have a truer understanding of the nature of that dehumanization… of our people,” she said.

Black and minority communities still have unequal educational opportunities and still look completely different from white communities, Khabir said.

“I think what I want people to understand about the celebration of Juneteenth is that while it commemorates a particular period at the end of an institution, there is still a component that exists today that must be dismantled. And until that is dismantled, there will not be a freedom,” she said.

Although Lewis is glad the holiday is bringing more awareness to Black history, he said he doesn’t want it to become commercialized.

“I want you to really understand what Juneteenth is,” he said. “I really don’t want it to be commercialized, but it’s a hard balance because I want awareness to be there but I really want some reflection to be there.”

29th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival

The annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival is honoring the Douglass Theatre’s 100th anniversary and will feature several artists, food vendors, and musicians, including The Miles Davis Tribute Band.

Juneteenth Africa Spelling Bee

Elementary and middle school students in Middle Georgia can sign up for the first Juneteenth Africa Spelling Bee for a chance to win a cash prize. The deadline to register for the competition is June 12

  • When: June 17 and June 19
  • Where: The Tubman Museum and Tattnall Square Park, respectively
  • Cost: Free
  • More information: Call 773-484-6076

    Macon Georgia Black History Tours

    • When: June 14, 15 and 16 at 6 p.m.
    • Where: Starts at Terminal Station
    • Cost: Free
    • More information: Call to make a reservation at 478-718-8067

    Real Talk Hip Hop Summit Interactive Workshops

    Real Talk Hip Hop Summit Community Cypher

    If you know about another Juneteenth event that should be added to this list, email reporter Jenna Eason at jeason@macon.com.

    This story was originally published June 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

    JE
    Jenna Eason
    The Telegraph
    478-744-4432
    Jenna Eason creates serviceable news around culture, business and people who make a difference in the Macon community for The Telegraph. Jenna joined The Telegraph staff as a Peyton Anderson Fellow and multimedia reporter after graduating from Mercer University in May 2018 with a journalism degree and interning at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jenna has covered issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Middle Georgia elections and protests for the Middle Georgia community and Telegraph readers. Support my work with a digital subscription
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