Jacksonville civil rights leader Rodney Hurst Sr. speaks about the importance of Juneteenth at City Hall on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 18, 2024 at 2:48 pm
Calling slavery “a dark, shameful legacy,” Mayor Donna Deegan joined dozens of community and civil rights leaders and city officials on Tuesday to commemorate Juneteenth.
The federal holiday recognizes June 19, 1865, as the day when 250,000 enslaved people in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Local pastors and leaders of nonprofit agencies that create racial healing spoke Tuesday at City Hall, along with a longtime civil rights leader who was head of the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP during sit-ins in 1960 to protest racism.
Rodney Hurst Sr. has spoken and written about segregation in Jacksonville and remembers when he was part of the sit-ins at the Cohens department store cafeteria in what is now City Hall. He said Juneteenth has an important message still today.
“I am not going to celebrate taking the chains off when persons should not have had chains on to begin with,” Hurst said to applause. “We celebrate one of the founding principles of this country — freedom. And we reaffirm the promised commitment to equality. … Men and women cannot enjoy the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without diversity, equity, inclusion and equality.”
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The Emancipation Proclamation was issued Jan. 1, 1863, declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate States were legally free. But it took two years and some 2,000 Union soldiers to enforce that decree on June 19, 1865, declaring that enslaved Black people there were also free citizens.
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021. Juneteenth became the nation’s 12th legal holiday and the first since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983, according to the Florida Archives.
As part of Tuesday’s ceremony, Deegan also named her inaugural Mayoral Advisory Board for African Americans: Kimberly Allen,. Lee Brown III, Audrieanne Burgin, Dawn Curling, Barbara Darby, Latrina Dowdell, Kelly Frazier, Kiaira Nixon, Ronetta Wards, Errol White and Marques Wilkes.
“As we reflect on the significance of Juneteenth, we recognize that the struggle for racial equality and justice is far from being over,” Deegan said. “Let this day be a call to action for the promise of freedom and ensuring it is fully realized for every American.
“I am committed and dedicated to uplifting the beautiful mosaic that is our city to celebrate diversity, champion inclusion and strive towards equity,” she said. “Congratulations to you all. I am looking forward to your feedback, collaboration and support.”
Deegan announced the board in February, saying that it is where residents will share information and perspective with her.
