ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Center Square at the Juneteenth Block Party on Tuesday afternoon was a sauna.
With a fireplace roaring in a corner.
With the unrelenting sun cranking up the mid-90-degree heat to near unbearable.
“What’s Mother Nature doing to us today?” said Claudia Uwald as she sat at her T-shirt kiosk on Seventh Street sweating and spent. “This heat!
“Whew!”
It was suggested to her that maybe, just maybe, Mother Nature had ordered the brilliance of the sun shining down upon us, illuminating the importance of this very special day.
“Yes, yes!’ Uwald said. “That’s it! That’s how we should view this day! Illuminating. Special. Freeing.”
Allentown saluted the importance of Juneteenth in U.S. history with food and drinks kiosks, vendors selling T-shirts and artwork and memorabilia centric to the federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when 250,000 African-American slaves in Texas were declared free by the U.S. Army.
Juneteenth commemorates the last bastion of slavery during the final days of the Civil War, signifying the Black Americans in Texas being delivered the news that slavery had ended 3 years prior through the Emancipation Proclamation.
"Because of people like my grandparents, I have a choice. If I want to be an artist, I can. I can be whatever I want to be. That’s why celebrating Juneteenth is so important.”Victoria Strickland-Roderick, Allentown
“Today is an opportunity to reflect on freedom and the liberties and opportunities we have in this country,” Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk said. “Juneteenth is especially important because it’s the story of people being denied freedom. Of freedom that came late.
“This is a celebration of history. We have the opportunity to reconnect with our elders who fought for those rights, which isn’t something that was just given to us.”
Residents strolled the Center Square sipping cold drinks and drinking in celebration of the moment. Music from African-American artists like Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores and Hip Hop artists filled the air, entertaining the crowd from the bandshell.
Artist Victoria Strickland-Roderick of Allentown framed the Juneteenth celebration as “an enlightenment of our people, an acknowledgment of where we came from, how to build on it and unite.”
Strickland-Roderick didn’t just learn about the experiences of her ancestors from history books.
“My grandparents, William and Sarah Strickland, marched with Dr. (Martin Luther) King in Montgomery, Ala. (in 1965),” she said. “The would tell me stories about that struggle for freedom and the right for our people to vote.
“They said it was rough. But they dealt with it because the cause was right.
“Back then, (Blacks) didn’t have a choice to do what they wanted to do. Because of people like my grandparents, I have a choice. If I want to be an artist, I can. I can be whatever I want to be. That’s why celebrating Juneteenth is so important.”
The Juneteenth Block Party capped a monthlong celebration in Allentown.
Local rap artists LDB (Last of a Dying Breed) entertained the crowd from the bandshell.
“Celebrating what Juneteenth means is beyond important,” said LDB member Taf Nixon.
“This is our time to shine, to remember who came before us. Today is about positivity.”
Dr. Cereta Johnson, president of the Allentown Juneteenth Committee, said the committee began planning for the celebration in January.
“This day is very important to recognize because it celebrates our freedom as African-American people,” she said. “And not only that, it brings unity into the community.”
Johnson is also a missionary who has visited Africa and witnessed the void of freedoms there.
Juneteenth also hits home with her in a very personal way.
“My great-grandmother was a slave,” Johnson said. “She grew up as a slave, a servant in Georgia. She had 12 children and picked cotton. I heard her stories from my grandmother.
“So, when I think of this day, my great-grandmother — Mae Jessie Smith — is the first person who comes to mind.”
As Johnson spoke on the broiling sidewalk on Hamilton Street, folks passing by were free to do what they pleased. Not so long ago, that was not the case for People of Color. But those who were enslaved had that dream of freedom that Dr. King espoused so many years later.
“I have this favorite quote — ‘freedom is in the mind,’” she said. “If you can be free in the mind, you can be free anywhere. Even though there’s things that happen around us, you have to push toward that freedom and understand it happens in your mind.”
Center Square was a sauna on Tuesday- only made hotter by the warmth of celebrating the triumphant end of chattel slavery.
