From Galveston to Concord, 5 communities keep Juneteenth stories alive
For Juneteenth, Paste BN is telling the stories of five different communities across the country where residents are fighting to preserve history.
In Galveston, Texas, one man is turning the city’s historic district into an outdoor classroom.
He’s known as “Professor Juneteenth.”
On the banks of the Patuxent River in rural Maryland, a former summer haven for Black residents is pushing to preserve its history and revitalize the town.
And in Concord, Massachusetts – a place known far more for its central role in the American Revolution 250 years ago – a small museum is seeking new funding sources to keep alive the story of Black Americans and the nation’s founding.
Juneteenth may be the nation's youngest federal holiday, but commemorating the death of slavery has celebrations and traditions that predate many others. In communities across the United States, efforts are underway to keep telling those stories for generations to come.
As early as 1866, the large jollifications rivaled Independence Day festivities and featured newly freed Black Americans holding rallies pushing for further inclusion as full U.S. citizens.
In subsequent years when Black people were barred from using public parks because of segregation laws, for instance, historians note how many pooled their money to buy "emancipation grounds" for Juneteenth gatherings.
"When denied entry and denied access, African Americans created their own," said Roger Davidson Jr., associate professor of history at Bowie State University.
Amid this year's national observation there are grave worries among historians, activists and other experts that the country is facing a new backlash as the fabrics of Black American history come under attack as part of President Donald Trump's larger war against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
"In light of what's happening, especially today where African Americans or people of African descent are more seen as victims or rolled up into some sort of a stereotype, (it’s important to) hold on to these sites and this history to show that we're more than whatever you think we are," Davidson said.
"You don't want to give that up. Why just give away your history?"
For this Juneteenth, Paste BN is telling the stories of five different communities across the country where many are continuing to observe these rich traditions.
Across the nation: Galveston, Texas | Eagle Harbor, Maryland | Concord, Massachusetts | Hampton, Virginia | Paducah, Kentucky
Galveston, Texas: Celebrating freedom in the birthplace of Juneteenth
Each day in the heart of downtown Galveston, tourists and residents stroll past restaurants, candy stores and gift shops hawking their wares on the same street where auctioneers once sold enslaved Black bodies.
Though the port city is best known for its role in the end of American slavery − when a Union general enforced the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, years after it was issued − it was once home to what is believed to be the largest slave auction house in Texas.
It’s part of the island’s complicated past that Sam Collins III doesn’t want the nation to forget.
“Sometimes people say, ‘why do you want to live in the past? Tell these stories of the past?’ Because we can learn from the mistakes of the past and be inspired by the successes of the past,” Collins said.
Collins is a financial adviser by trade, but he has dedicated his life to sharing stories from Galveston he said often aren’t taught in schools. He’s turned the historic district into an outdoor classroom, pushing for the installation of a historical marker and 5,000-square-foot mural that illustrate the Juneteenth story in the place where the holiday was born.
His efforts have earned him the nickname “Professor Juneteenth.”
On June 19, Collins will rise before the sun to virtually share the story of the holiday with a group in Nigeria. He’ll lead a tour group along the Freedom Walk before the Juneteenth parade begins in the afternoon.
He’ll stop by a festival in one of the local parks, but won’t linger too long “because it is summer in Texas and that heat will get you.”
Before the sun sets, he’ll pop in to a screening of his Juneteenth documentary then head to his favorite event: the march from the courthouse square to the Reedy Chapel Church that reenacts an early freedom celebration.
Collins does all this, he said, because he wants people to understand Juneteenth is not just local history or Black history.
“This is American history," he said. "It's world history."
− N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Paste BN
Eagle Harbor, Maryland: 'A sense of place, of home' in historic summer haven
Noah Waters stood a few feet from the Patuxent River where slave ships once traveled. He pointed to bungalows that sit on former tobacco plantations.
Today, Eagle Harbor, founded as a summer haven for Black residents near rural Aquasco, Maryland, is home to about 70 people who hold tight to the rich history of the 96-year-old resort town.
“So much has been lost, it is important to preserve history,’’ said Waters, 67, the town’s mayor. “Everyone has a right to know their history and to be proud of their history.’’
Incorporated in 1929, Eagle Harbor offered Black government workers, politicians and teachers a retreat from the nation’s capital. They needed a summer respite at a time when White communities wouldn’t let them vacation alongside them.
Now, the town is awaiting word from the National Park Service on whether Eagle Harbor will be named to the National Register of Historic Places.
The recognition is about “how far we have come and how far we respect our ancestors that we want to preserve what they have done and what they've left for us,” said Linda Moore-Garoute, a town commissioner and its unofficial historian.
Winding roads lead to the town with street names like Maple, Juniper and Sycamore. The community center, a one-story building, serves as the hub for meetings and gatherings like the Eagle Harbor Citizens Association's Juneteenth BBQ celebration.
“We’ve got to get back to our history,'' said Alton Branson, 70, whose mother was born and raised in Eagle Harbor. "We’ve got to keep it going.’’
In a corner near the center is the Heritage Garden with plants native to Africa like Nigeria clay pea and red burgundy okra.
A marker nearby honored Black women who “devoted tireless hours to make our town, 'The Paradise on the Patuxent.'"
Plans are underway for Eagle Harbor Day on Aug. 2.
Once advertised as Washington's Coney Island, Waters hopes the town will use 10 acres for a conference center, hotel, restaurant and museum. “We want Eagle Harbor to be a place of celebration,'' he said, where "you can rejuvenate, you can heal.’’
Like other Black communities, integration opened doors to vacation elsewhere. Some of its younger residents left. That came at a cost. Some buildings have faded exteriors, boarded windows.
But several bungalows have fresh paint and renovated porches. On one recent afternoon, children raced down the street.
Mike Watson, 63, took pork off a giant smoker and shared how he appreciated the Bald eagles, the sunrise and fishing with his grandchildren. “There's no other place like it ... from Maine to Florida,’’ he said.
Across the river and within eyesight are grand mansions, but townsfolk said Eagle Harbor’s history makes it rich.
“Nothing can touch this history,’’ Moore-Garoute said. “I feel a sense of place, of home.''
− Deborah Barfield Berry, Paste BN
Concord, Massachusetts: Preventing the ‘white washing of history’ in the home of the American Revolution
When people visit The Robbins House, they’re often struck by two things: that two families managed to squeeze into the 544-square-foot duplex and that a Black community existed at all in a town famous for prominent White residents like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott.
The 19th century house was originally located about a mile north of Concord, Massachusetts, in a community historically composed of African Americans and indigenous people that is now the home of a waste treatment plant, according to Jen Turner, the museum’s executive director. Twice, it has been lifted off its foundation and moved elsewhere to preserve its history.
Inside lived the family of Caesar Robbins, a Black patriot and enslaved man who likely gained his freedom fighting in the Revolutionary War, Turner said. Today, the museum tells the story of an even lesser known figure, Robbins’ granddaughter Ellen Garrison.
As a child, Garrison helped integrate Concord’s public schools. She taught in the South during Reconstruction and challenged segregation laws, Turner said.
Her motto was “educate, educate, educate,” Turner said. In many ways, the museum is carrying on that mission.
“There's a percentage of American society who want to present American history as a White, male history, and obviously that's not true. It's never been true,” Turner said. “And so we're really proud of the work we do to really share the stories of these Black Americans who fundamentally contributed to the founding of the country.”
To continue telling these stories, Nikki Turpin wants to start an endowment for the museum.
Turpin, copresident of the museum’s board of directors, doesn’t want to keep relying on federal grant funding, which was temporarily revoked by the Trump administration. Without that money, she said there would be no Juneteenth celebration, no reading of Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” and perhaps no museum at all.
“We would not have lasted through the fall,” Turpin said, adding that they’re focused on “really making sure that people understand what's at stake and the whitewashing of history again.”
− N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Paste BN
Hampton, Virginia: 'Business as usual' in historic Virginia city
Hampton, Virginia, has over 400 years of local Black history.
The story dates back to 1619 when the first enslaved Africans arrived by ship to the shores of the southern Virginia beach town, and continues through the 1861 Contraband Decision at Hampton’s Fort Monroe, which gave those who had escaped slavery crucial protection during the Civil War. The city is also home to Hampton University, a historically Black institution.
The community in Hampton is marking Juneteenth with a full slate of events that began the weekend before the holiday and runs through the days after.
City officials say this year is “business as usual.”
“We're not doing anything different than what we've always done,” said Marie St. Clair, a senior recreation professional for Hampton Parks and Recreation. “We're just doing and honoring our stories, which we've always done.”
St. Clair wrote and directed, “A Juneteenth Pageant – The Play,” which was performed for the third year in a row in Hampton on June 14. The play centers around a fictional local contest and takes inspiration from Juneteenth pageants that occur in many states, including Virginia.
An online advertisement ahead of the performance promised audiences they “will be enlightened to the true meaning of Juneteenth.”
“Juneteenth is a lot of different emotions," St. Clair told Paste BN. "It's the history, it's the pride, it's the tenacity of enslaved people to take us from there to where we are now, and it's the opportunities that are hopefully available in the future.”
Also on the Saturday before Juneteenth, Hampton held its annual Remembrance Day ceremony, which honors the nearly 2 million Africans who died en route to America during the Middle Passage.
Anthropologist Chadra Pittman helped bring the international event to Hampton 14 years ago. Though typically held in the same month, Remembrance is not directly affiliated with Juneteenth.
But Pittman said the city’s honoring of both days is key given that the Trump administration has threatened to revise national historical narratives.
“All of us have played a role in what America is and to stand on the sidelines and watch this erasure happen is not going to happen,” Pittman said.
“There are enough of us that care enough about this history and about the people who died fighting to preserve this history that it would be a disgrace to those ancestors.”
“So, yeah, we're doing the work,” she said. “And we're going to be very noisy over the next four years to make sure that this legacy is respected.”
− Savannah Kuchar, Paste BN
Paducah, Kentucky: For other rural Black Americans, Eighth of August is Emancipation Day
When the U.S. Constitution was amended to end slavery in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln's birthplace − Kentucky − was among the handful of states that refused to go along.
The Bluegrass State didn't symbolically ratify the 13th Amendment until March 18, 1976 − when Gerald Ford was president.
Kentucky's tardiness in embracing emancipation is remarkably fitting given that for many smaller Black communities in the western half of the state, the jubilation of their ancestor's freedom doesn't fall on June 19, the popular and federally recognized holiday.
Instead, many cities and towns in the Jackson Purchase region celebrate a 160-year-old pilgrimage almost two months later known as the Eighth of August.
"This is the Kentucky's oldest African American event on record," Betty Dobson, a longtime Paducah, Kentucky, resident and historian, told Paste BN.
So why the different date?
This particular freedom day's origin story is a bit murky given how few newspapers covered African American celebrations in the late 19th century. Oral histories evolve over time as well, which sparks debates among participants.
But many point to the holiday beginning in neighboring Tennessee because future President Andrew Johnson, then a military governor for the Union, freed his slaves on Aug. 8, 1863. Others contend the different date is simply a reflection of how learning about Lincoln's executive order of emancipation reached faraway, rural enclaves at times later than Galveston, Texas.
Regardless the events in Paducah and surrounding communities, such as Hopskinsville, Russellville and Allensville, carry a distinct homecoming vibe, Dobson said.
Many Black families have celebrated both dates for years, she said, while some feel like Juneteenth becoming a national holiday in 2021 was an attempt to take away from a more local celebration that is a point of pride.
"I'm an Eighth of August person," Dobson said. "Folks in our area that's engraved in us. It's like the cliff swallows that go back to Capistrano. The Black folks who have left, the always come back to Paducah for the Eighth."
Dobson practices a living Black history, as executive director of the Hotel Metropolitan, an establishment founded in 1908 that was a haven for Black travelers during the height of segregation. She has spearheaded restoring the hotel, which was a hot spot for touring musicians on the Chitlin’ Circuit in the early 20th century, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Ike & Tina Turner.
The regional celebrations around emancipation have gotten smaller over the decades, but many residents and activists in the region asserted that events like the Eighth of August will remain for decades to come.
The Trump administration has said its efforts to root out DEI have led to some unwarranted changes affecting Black history, which it has sought to correct. The scrubbing of federal government websites of references to Harriet Tubman and her abolitionist actions with the Underground Railroad or the removal of Jackie Robinson and his military service before he broke baseball’s color barrier, have sparked a renewed interest in protecting that history at the grassroots level, according to Dobson.
"People locally are reacting in a manner that that they can't believe that this is happening," Dobson said. "People never thought that Trump would go to the lengths that he actually went to, so I think you will find that more people are determined to celebrate Juneteenth and Eighth of August events."
− Phillip M. Bailey, Paste BN
Photos by Jack Gruber, Paste BN; the Paste BN Network; Reuters; Imagn Images; and Provided by the Juneteenth Legacy Project; and Glenn Hall Photography.