A block from the end of the Lake County Juneteenth Parade in Waukegan, dancers from Ballet Folklorico Tayahua performed Mexican folk dances at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Washington Street, a road named after the first U.S. president, a slave owner.
Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham paused a moment as he thought about the confluence of his city’s diversity on the spot. He said it made him think about what he observed two days earlier, watching the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
“Dr. King gave us the dream,” Cunningham said. “Jesse (Jackson) gave us the hope, and President Obama said, ‘Yes, we can.’ We can do anything in America when you have dedicated leaders, and we’re going to rebuild Waukegan with democracy being Waukegan’s strength.”
“That’s America,” U.S. Rep Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, added a few minutes later as he passed the same intersection, greeting families lining Washington Street.
Cunningham, Schneider and their teams were among more than 50 entrants in the second-annual Lake County Juneteenth Parade and Festival Saturday in Waukegan, celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021 and an official holiday in Waukegan the year before, commemorates June 19, 1865, when U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger informed the slaves in Galveston, Texas, that they were free, enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation signed in 1863.
Brandon Ewing, a former Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Board of Education president and a current member of the Waukegan Planning and Zoning Commission, said after the events, more than 1,500 people lined the parade route and over 6,000 attended the festival.
Ewing said Juneteenth is an important part of American history because it is the time when the words of the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” were no longer unequally applied. The story is an important one to tell, he said.
“My great-great-grandfather was born enslaved,” Ewing said. “My grandmother was born in 1935 and was in her 20s when Emmett Till was murdered. It’s important for the community to tell the stories of our ancestors because it is part of the cumulative story of America.”
Sylvia England, the founder of the African American Museum at England Manor in Waukegan, led the parade. She said she is the great-great-granddaughter of Sylvia Croft, who was sold at 13 as a “Negro slave.” She was proud to lead the parade.
“It’s an awesome experience to celebrate freedom on Juneteenth,” England said. “Juneteenth helps you to understand what freedom really is.”
Sitting along the parade route were people like Nikisha Johnson, who came to enjoy the parade and festival and to rejoice in what the day meant to her.
“I came to celebrate and understand my culture,” Johnson said.
“This is a day to celebrate freedom,” added Sharon Johnson, another watching the parade and no relation to Nikisha Johnon.
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, no relation to Nikisha or Sharon, was the parade’s grand marshal. She sees a relationship between the need for Granger to enforce laws that slave owners were ignoring more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery, and events in today’s Washington.
”Juneteenth is Freedom Day, it is Liberation day, it’s Jubilee Day,” Johnson said. “It also represents that we are resilient and we never gave up until everyone was free. The former slave owners defied the orders, and the Union soldiers were directed to enforce the law.
“The current administration is not following the Constitution and judicial orders,” she said. “We have to remain vigilant and continue fighting to ensure we do not lose our fragile freedom because the current administration is trampling on our rights.”
Schneider said as the country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Juneteenth puts additional meaning to the phrase, “all men are created equal.” He also sees parallels between events today and slave owners in Texas not following the new law.
More Top Picks Best E Readers For Seniors
“The folks who knew slavery (became) illegal had an imperative to obey the United States and I would argue a moral imperative not to put their economic interest above all else,” Schneider said. “We’re seeing people currently putting their economic interest above the law.”
Parade participants also included Mano a Mano Family Resource Center and the Center for Immigrant Progress. Both groups are helping members of the immigrant community in fear over the federal government’s current immigration enforcement efforts.
Carmen Patlan, the executive director of the Center for Immigrant Progress, was one of the participants. She said there are parallels in the issues facing the immigrant community today to what African Americans were dealing with more than a century ago.
“There is only one race, the human race,” Patlan said. “We must just stand united together against racism.”
Celebration of Juneteenth started Friday in Waukegan at the museum. England said there were dancers, singers and other entertainment hailing African and African American culture, including a play over five hours of activities. More than 300 were there.