Black Heritage Trail celebrates Juneteenth

PORTSMOUTH — The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire held a daylong celebration of African American topics and culture for its annual celebration of Juneteenth on Saturday.

Valerie Cunningham, a founding member of BHTNH said Juneteenth is a holiday that began in Texas because that was where the final slaves were freed. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

“The Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 freed enslaved people, or at least it was intended to,” Cunningham said. “It freed slaves living in areas under the Confederacy only. Galveston, Texas, is where a lot of slaves and their owners ended up. It was not a Confederate state so the slaves were still held and there were no Union armies to free them. It was one of the last places to free their slaves.”

Once slaves were freed, they celebrated Freedom Day, and it was Texas that became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. New Hampshire is one of five remaining states that do not recognize the holiday but the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion recently submitted its first report to Gov. Chris Sununu. One of the council’s two recommendations is to establish a statewide recognition of Juneteenth.

JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the BHTNH, said Juneteenth is the longest held African American celebration in the United States.

“Celebrating it gives us all a chance to look at our country’s history, our culture and role here,” Boggis said. “It’s a history that’s often omitted, so this is a good way of remembering and using history to connect today.”

The Juneteenth celebration included community dialogue, catered soul food, a black history tour, African drumming and dance and culminated with a concert at the Middle Street Baptist Church.

A drumming and dancing presentation by the Akwaaba Ensemble had everyone on their feet, swaying to the beats, clapping their hands and joining in with the dancing. The members, Theo Martey, Nii Osendah, Dave Etse and Mary Sosu gave residents a glimpse of their Ghana culture. In introducing them, BHTNH member Jubillee Byfield said their music was of the Twi language of the Ashanti tribe of Ghana.

The drumming performance was held at the African Burying Ground Memorial Park on Chestnut Street.

“We knew about this burial ground since 1999 and we put up the marker in 2000,” Cunningham said. “That was three years before the ground was ‘accidentally’ uncovered as most people think. In fact, we met with city officials three years before the street was opened up, and we discussed the work before it began.”

With a theme of “Law and Order,” presenters included Bill Celester, who won praise as a district police commander in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and as police superintendent in Newark, New Jersey, but also spent two years in federal prison. Pati Hernández, a mother, activist, dancer, puppeteer and Dartmouth College adjunct professor, whose focus is the exploration of political and social problems through the arts, and Devon Chaffee, executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, spoke.