LOCAL

Two celebrations — one old, one new — share Juneteenth in Lansing

Lansing State Journal

The Benton Harbor High School marching band performs at the 2019 Lansing Juneteenth Celebration.

One of Lansing's oldest celebrations is getting some friendly competition — or an afterparty, depending on how you look at it.

Since 1993, the Lansing Juneteenth Celebration has kicked off with a parade through south Lansing commemorating the annual holiday, which marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in Texas learned the Civil War had ended and they were freed. Since then, cities across the nation have gradually mounted celebrations on June 19 — also known as Freedom Day — celebrating Black independence.

The event in south Lansing will return as planned after going virtual last year due to COVID-19.

But afterward, a second event targeting a younger demographic with kick off in REO Town with live music and food by Black-owned restaurants.

The original Juneteenth parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Wainwright School with a festival following at noon at the Alfreda Schmidt Southside Community Center. The REO Town festival runs later that day from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on South Washington Avenue between Elm Street and South Street.

Organizers of both events emphasized they are not in competition with one another.

"(These) collaboratives are working together to reach both (younger and older) demographics, just at different times," said Najeema Iman, co-organizer of the REO Town festival. She previously ran social media for the Lansing Juneteenth Celebration.

Both Marilyn Rogers and Debra Plummer of the Lansing Juneteenth Celebration agreed. Rogers said the elder event caters to a broader group of people, from older generations to tots, with activities for children each year.

Both celebrations signal a return to some form of normalcy following the COVID-19 pandemic, with much of the nation reopening as more Americans get vaccinated. The REO Town event is even setting up a mobile vaccination clinic, with the Michigan National Guard administering 200 Pfizer doses to anyone 12 and up.

The event will also offer rapid COVID-19 testing.

"We got all of this going on in the world, but just to be able to sit in your Blackness, sit in your melanin, sit and eat and then celebrate yourself," Iman said.

Longtime celebration returns with parade, festival

Rogers and Plummer anticipate high attendance at the south Lansing festival after a year online. This year, the duo and others on Lansing's Juneteenth committee revamped the parade route and festival for COVID-19 safety.

Instead of the usual walking parade through south Lansing neighborhoods, this year's parade will be a car caravan. The route will stay within one neighborhood and end at the Alfreda Schmidt Southside Community Center — 5825 Wise Road — where the festival will commence.

"It speaks to people of all ages in trying to get them out," Plummer said. "The REO Town one is going to speak to the younger adult group, our Juneteenth brings forth the traditional understanding of Juneteenth and we do bring together all sorts of people."

Unlike the REO Town festival, not all of the vendors at south Lansing's Juneteenth are Black-owned. Rogers said if a vendor approached them to add something to the event that wasn't already there, they welcomed the addition. She stressed that they focused on overall unity among residents as they sought to pay respects to the struggles of Black Americans.

Included in the south side festival's entertainment lineup is a performance by gospel artist Tim Bowman and an educational exhibit by the Lansing Juneteenth committee.

This year's event will also be the first in-person Juneteenth for many since last summer's protests following the murder of George Floyd. Rogers said those protests were largely led by younger people "tired" of being disenfranchised and mistreated. For her, they were a symbol of Juneteenth's greater intergenerational importance.

"Unfortunately, the negative things that are happening with crime committed against Black individuals have come to a head and to an explosion," she said. "If you ignore the past and the community, at some point in time, you’ll have an eruption. People were no longer silent."

Plummer praised Austin's REO Town event for reaching out to untapped groups of Millennials and the younger Generation Z. The event, she believes, will inform a whole new generation on the importance of Juneteenth to Black culture.

Performers stack up REO Town celebration for younger generation

Black-owned vendors, food and performers: That's the plan for REO Town's Juneteenth celebration, which will close Washington Avenue to cars between Elm and South Streets Saturday afternoon.

In addition to businesses that already line that stretch of Washington Avenue, the festival's 30-plus vendors include the barbecue food truck Krystal's Kitchen, Smoothie Queen, Nature's 92, Liza's Bling Box and Dream Out Sketch Art. There will also be booths for Black-led community organizations like All of the Above, the Hip-Hop Academy and the Mikey 23 Foundation.

"(This is) something that celebrates Black culture and celebrates the emancipation of Black people in the U.S.," Austin said. "Part of it is the timing and knowing people have been seeking a reason to get out and have a good time."

Austin has been going to Juneteenth events since he was a child and regards the holiday as a cultural celebration with an educational aspect.

He started the REO Town event in part because many of the longer-running celebrations, including south Lansing's, focus on religion.

Said his co-organizer: "It kind of gives kids a tap into what the hip-hop underground, or the unsigned independent community of artists that are Black or doing anything, (it) just gives a different voice to everything.".

Austin and Iman are asking that unvaccinated people wear masks to the event, but will not be checking the vaccination status of attendees.

Austin said many of those attending this year's celebration still have last year's protests on their minds. He said that while Black people have known disenfranchisement over the course of their lives, many others acknowledged it for the first time last year.

"They might not have seen things as vividly as were broadcasted before, but for Black people, it's a bit different from what happened last year with those injustices, but it does make us want to appreciate who we are and celebrate our contributions to society," he said.

Austin said Juneteenth is a celebration that Black people have the liberty to enjoy among themselves, alone or with allies "celebrating the independence of Black people."

As his co-organizer Iman put it: "It's the one time of the year that I can see people that look like me, all collectively together."

Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at (517) 267-1344or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.