'A weight off our shoulders:' What Juneteenth means to Sioux Falls' Black community

Juneteenth symbolizes freedom, the end of slavery, a “weight off our shoulders” and the “Black Fourth of July.”

Those were the feelings among Black residents from Sioux Falls who helped run the city’s Juneteenth event on Saturday.

Juneteenth commemorates the day Texans received word, more than two and a half years later, that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people from slavery.

Freedom was a “dream deferred” in Texas until June 19, 1865, said Willette Capers, assistant dean of students for diversity, equity and inclusion at Augustana University. Capers gave the keynote speech at the Juneteenth celebration on Saturday.

“Union soldiers discovered slave masters deliberately withheld news of the slaves’ freedom because they could get more free labor out of them,” Capers said. “The slaves left their plantations, with many heading north into neighboring states, even without a plan or a place to rest their heads. They left, because they were free.”

More:Juneteenth 2021 celebrations: What to know about the holiday

Capers said one year later, free African Americans reunited in Galveston, Texas, to support each other and to celebrate their new life of freedom, which gave us “the birth of Juneteenth.”

To Gwendolyn Beaudion, who lived through the civil rights movement and recalls riding in the back of buses in Louisiana as a young girl, attending a segregated school and drinking out of “the colored fountain,” Juneteenth is a “weight off our shoulders.”

“It’s something that I can make sure that my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren know about,” said Beaudion, who is former city council candidate Julian Beaudion’s mother. “I’m going to sit down with them and explain everything to them.”

And with President Joe Biden announcing Thursday that Juneteenth would be a federal holiday, it’s like “finally feeling free for everybody,” said Denise Tucker, a board member with Establishing Sustainable Connections. She called it the “Black Fourth of July.”

Hawaii became the 49th state to recognize Juneteenth last week, making South Dakota the lone holdout, though Gov. Kristi Noem announced Thursday that state employees were to receive the Friday before Juneteenth off in 2021.

More:Gov. Noem announces state employees will get Juneteenth off on Friday

Rundale Dobson said he feels as though the issue was moved from “the back shelf to the forefront” this week after Noem gave state employees the day off.    

Capers’ speech also covered issues that continue to plague non-white communities, such as disproportionate rates of incarceration and longer sentences, health inequalities such as higher infant mortality rates and higher rates of underinsured/uninsured people, and police brutality.

More:'Just the beginning': Protests shed light on Sioux Falls' need for police diversity, outreach

“For the last couple of years, we’ve been shouting louder and louder that ‘Black Lives Matter,’” she said. “We have to acknowledge that the motive to belong is a fundamental human need, and it is crucial to human survival and progress.”

That’s why “we continue to fight” for equitable, inclusive environments; encourage and support Black safe spaces; and acknowledge that all Black lives matter, not just cisgender and heterosexual Black lives, Caper said.

Black people in Sioux Falls continue to face instances of racism and microaggressions, Tucker notes.

“I know there’s things I can’t do; I’m not going to walk or run through my neighborhood at certain times of the day in a hoodie,” Tucker said.

She said she also worries about flying a pride flag in her neighborhood in the home she shares with her wife.

More:Police: Man arrested for trying to burn pride flag in downtown Sioux Falls

“Tensions are so high today that I can’t relax,” she said. “I can’t even relax in my neighborhood, and it’s a nice neighborhood.”

Yet, Tucker said she appreciates that today’s youth are making their voices heard in protests and politics, and that she appreciated seeing a “melting pot of ages, races and genders” at this year’s Juneteenth celebration.

Skip and Judy Mulock, a white couple in their 70s, both said they attended the event because they want to do more to support the city’s African American community.

“How can we say we support if we don’t show up?” Judy Mulock said. “It’s not just talking, it’s walking. We really believe that.”

The event included food trucks like Chubby’s, Berkes BBQ and Windy City Bites; vendor booths, children’s activities like face painting and inflatables, music performances and even a fashion show.

More:The complete 2021 guide to Sioux Falls food trucks

One of more than a dozen vendors was Lamarquis Bolden from Fine Line Designs, who created T-shirts with different Black icons, images and sayings to commemorate the day.

Juneteenth symbolized the “day we were free,” Bolden said.

COVID-19 vaccines were also offered at the event by Avera Health. Chief medical officer Dr. Mike Elliot spoke at the event and reassured event attendees that the vaccine is safe, as no other vaccines in U.S. history “have been studied under a closer microscope.”

Elliot also said, “it’s about darn time (Juneteenth) became a national holiday,” and that the city will look forward to more years celebrating.