By Sandra McKinney, for the CVPost
Music fed the soul. Physical contact, in a handshake or a hug, fed the spirit on Saturday afternoon.
For many attending the 2021 Juneteenth celebration, food wasn’t missed and there was no reference to the fact that – because of COVID-19 – there wasn’t any, as there had been in past years.
Many local organizations that address racial justice issues set up tables under the pines of Carson Park and representatives told the story for their groups.
This celebration has been held here for 21 years, thanks to leaders black and white in the Chippewa Valley. Saturday’s focus was different, since Juneteenth achieved recognition as a national holiday on Thursday when President Joe Biden signed legislation that had received near-unanimous support in Congress.
The three-hour event attracted between 300 and 500 people, according to estimates of the crowd’s ebb and flow from two local police officers. The program included music – vocals and the Irie Sol band – and speakers from the local and state levels.
The speakers shared the message of Juneteenth, which commemorates the date in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX and put an end to that state’s slavery, which had continued more than a month past the date when the Confederacy surrendered.
NOTES: Sandra McKinney is the president of JONAH and serves on the CVPost’s board as its treasurer.
The home page photo was taken by Andrew Werthmann and is used here by permission.