LI Juneteenth events celebrate past, look at present

Long Islanders on Saturday celebrated the end of slavery in Juneteenth commemorations across the region, but they also discussed the barriers that prevent Black Americans from achieving true equality.

Juneteenth commemorates how, two months after the end of the Civil War, on June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to tell slaves they were free.

Two days before Juneteenth last year, President Joe Biden signed legislation making the day a federal holiday. This year, its official observance will take place Monday because June 19 falls on Sunday.

“Juneteenth is a day to commemorate the struggles, sacrifices and contributions that African Americans have made in this country,” said Hempstead Deputy Town Supervisor Dorothy Goosby, as she spoke before about 100 people in the plaza outside Town Hall that was officially named after her in October.

Before Goosby was honored with a plaza name, she fought in court to eliminate at-large voting in the town and create council districts, including one with a large Black population that allowed her to win a seat on the town board in 1999 that she still holds today.

Other celebrations and commemorations scheduled for Saturday included events in East Hampton, Elmont, Hicksville, Wyandanch, Riverhead and Southampton.

The Village of Hempstead held its fifth annual Juneteenth celebration several blocks away from the town one, near Village Hall.

As Alan Dunkley, 75, of Hempstead, stood with a friend at that event — which included dance and music performances, food and a historical exhibit — he reflected how “it’s necessary to remember all of the history of this country, the good and the bad. You don’t need to hide it or make it against the law to teach it.”

Dunkley said he was referring to laws and school policies enacted across the country that limit history that teachers can discuss and bar the use of certain books about racism from classrooms.

“You’re banning truth,” Dunkley said. “You’re supposed to be able to critically think. In order to think, you need facts so you can come up with your own opinion. You can’t do that if you’re hiding facts or make it against the law to acknowledge facts.”

Dunkley said the fight over school curricula is an example of how “we’re dealing with the same struggles we were dealing with back then” in 1865.

As she sat at the town commemoration, Chi Crick of Elmont said Juneteenth is a reminder that, even though July 4, 1776, is celebrated as the birth of the nation’s freedom, millions of Black Americans remained enslaved nearly a century later.

“It wasn’t freedom for everyone,” she said.

Crick sat with her sons, Chinma, 10, and Osi, 9. She brought them to the event to help them understand “the history of Black Americans in the country and … their place in society.”

“I want them to love where they come from,” she said.

Although the Juneteenth federal holiday is only a year old, in some Black American families, celebrations have been going on for generations.

Gloria Reid of Roosevelt recalled barbecues with family and friends growing up in West Virginia in the 1940s and 1950s. Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said his family gathered for a big dinner and listened to his grandparents talk about the difficulties of living in the Jim Crow-era South.

The East Hampton festivities focused on commemorating the 100th birthday of late Tuskegee Airman Lt. Lee A. Hayes and unveiling a plaque at the Amagansett youth park that was renamed after him in October. Hayes frequented the park during his life. 

Hayes, who died in 2013 at age 91, was a member of the acclaimed group of 996 Black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen who served during World War II. He would have turned 100 on Monday.

Audrey Gains, a friend of the Hayes family and a youth director for East Hampton Town, called Lee Hayes “an icon in this community” who "stood up for fairness for all people," advised local African American families and even helped build them houses.

Stacey Plaskett, the delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Virgin Islands, told the crowd of about 200 that as they paid homage to Hayes’ legacy and the Juneteenth holiday, she hoped “a fire is ignited within each of us to forge a brighter future for ourselves and the generation to come.”

“Whether that’s voting, whether that’s raising your voice, whether that’s being an ally of those who are oppressed, we all have our job and we all have to do it to maintain the democracy that Lee Hayes and others like him fought for,” Plaskett said.