By David Gordon, associate editor
A racially diverse gathering of more than 400 people surrounded the Pine Pavilion at Carson Park Tuesday evening to join Eau Claire’s 19th annual Juneteenth celebration.
The attendance was the largest in the event’s history here, according to Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, one of the celebration’s coordinators. The observance, which became an official state holiday in 2009, dates back to June 19, 1865 in Galveston, TX when Union soldiers landed there and brought the news that the Civil War was over and that former slaves were free.
The local observance is designed to promote area residents’ mutual commitment to a united but diverse community enriched by the differences among its members. It is coordinated by the Uniting Bridges Organization, an educational group that combines the former Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Day committees.
Berlye Middleton of Uniting Bridges read a lengthy list of sponsors that included governmental, nonprofit and commercial organizations as well as individuals. He noted that Eau Claire was the third city in Wisconsin – behind only Milwaukee and Madison – to establish a Juneteenth observance.
Middleton thanked those attending the event for demonstrating that they “believe in unity, believe in what we are trying to achieve in Eau Claire.”
The evening’s keynote speaker, Dale Taylor, urged his audience to define themselves and to avoid “fitting in” just to meet others’ expectations.
“Don’t let others set limits for you,” he said. “Leaders don’t ‘fit in.’ Leaders create spaces for others to fit in.”
Taylor, an emeritus professor of music at UW-Eau Claire and an internationally recognized authority on music therapy, stressed the need to evaluate information critically and to “listen for the information you’re not being told.” He added that “information is the greatest and most powerful weapon of all” and warned that not even close friends should be trusted with personal information they could use “to hurt you.”
Taylor accused the news media of using racial identifications only in stories that portray people of color negatively and listed several examples of African-Americans whose accomplishments were never reported.
Ducksworth-Lawton, a UW-EC history professor, attributed this year’s turnout in part to the advance publicity provided by a number of local media outlets. She said that in another four or five years, the Juneteenth celebration might outgrow the Carson Park space and added that this would be “a nice problem to have.”
She noted Eau Claire’s progress toward accepting diversity in the makeup of the community, but added that sometimes that progress “is like a cha-cha” – two steps forward and then a step (or two) backward. But she expressed confidence that the overall effort was moving in the right direction.
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