Winooski hosts first official Juneteenth Celebration

On Saturday, June 19, Winooski will be hosting a Junteenth event in Rotary Park.

Winooski’s Juneteenth event will feature speakers and singers all acknowledging the importance of Juneteenth to the Winooski community and the larger Vermont community. 

“This event is for our entire community, and it’s an inclusive, welcoming event to absolutely anyone of all ages or backgrounds,” said Meredith Bay-Tyack, one of the organizers of the event. 

“But in particular this event is for the Black people in our community to really feel free and to feel free to celebrate,” Bay Tyack said.

While there have been previous Juneteenth events in Winooski, this will be the first year that the event will be sponsored and hosted by the City of Winooski and downtown Winooski.

On June 19, 1865, Union Major-General Gordon Granger went to Galveston Texas, the last place where slavery was enforced in the United States, and emancipated the last of the enslaved people who lived there. 

Vermont became the 29th state to officially recognize Juneteenth in 2008, designating the third Saturday of the month as officially Juneteenth. Last year, amidst nationwide calls for police reform and the protests in Battery Park in Burlington, Governor Phil Scott proclaimed the 19th of June as “Juneteenth Recognition Day,” and spoke about the importance of Juneteenth. 

“We must better reflect on what it means for African Americans, and for everyone who loves freedom, believes in the dignity of every life and the American promise of equal rights and justice for all without exception,” Scott said.  

On June 16, Vermont Representative Peter Welch and other house democrats voted to affirm Juneteenth as a federally recognized holiday, with the expectation of Biden signing the bill later in the week.

Vermont never joined the Confederacy during America’s Civil War, and banned many forms of slavery well before the 13th amendment was ratified. However, there were forms of enslavement that were allowed well after the founding of the state.

“You could be an indentured servant, or be in indentured servitude, an that would certainly be a form of slavery, although that obviously had an endpoint,” said Winooski State Representative Hal Colston. “Many of our early leaders also had slaves.” 

Colston also pointed out that, in front of the ski rack on Church Street, is a plaque dedicated to Lavinia Parker and Francis Parker, a mother and son held as enslaved persons by Ethan Allen’s daughter Lucy Caroline Allen Hitchcock. 

“It’s not about shaming or making people feel bad, it's about just owning it, what did we learn from it and what did we do differently going forward,” Colson said regarding the educational values of an event like Juneteenth. “And keenly aware that this is a systemic issue, and we’re not immune from it as a state. 

“As liberal as we think we are. We have a lot of challenges, a lot of issues that support the disparities that we see in all walks of life here in Vermont, from education or health, employment, housing, it's all here.” 

The Vermont House of Representatives have recently taken steps to recognize the historical disparities with J.R.H 2, a joint resolution apologizing for Vermont’s role in state sponsored eugenics. The eugenics movement in Vermont disproportionately sterilized, separated and institutionalized BIPOC, indigenous and poor Vermonters, leading to generational trauma that is still affecting people today.  

“This is absolutely a part of our history and so not shying away from it is the absolute, I believe, the only way to move forward and heal and create new and better systems that benefit everyone,” said Bay-Tyack when asked about how the event would reckon with the history Vermont has regarding issues like slavery and treatment of native peoples.

The event, which opens at 5pm and closes at 8pm, will feature educational booths hosted by the library to inform people about the history of Juneteenth and other issues related to the community here in Winooski. There will also be a live painting done to depict the tone and feeling of the event that will be shared amongst the Winooski businesses. Further, Myra Flynn, a local singer and songwriter, will close for the event.