Juneteenth celebrated in Cesar Chavez Plaza, on streets of East Sacramento, outside Capitol

Dozens of Sacramentans gathered across the city Friday to mark Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.

An event, held by Sacramento community organizations like Black Child Legacy, Soul Collective and Sacramento Area Youth Speaks, was festive and upbeat at Cesar Chavez Plaza during the lunchhour. Folks gathered in the shade, greeting each other by bumping elbows. T-shirts and face masks reading “Build Black” were laid out on a table, along with hand sanitizer.

Rappers and spoken-word poets took the stage to perform, and the crowd danced to songs like “Back it Up” and “The Electric Slide.” Senior Pastor Damian Chandler of Capitol City Seventh-Day Adventist Church led the crowd in singing “We Shall Overcome.”

“We can’t stop marching until every Black and brown person is free,” Chandler said. “They need to say, ‘we have overcome,’ today.”

Sacramento Area Youth Speaks organizer Patrice Hill said even though she doesn’t believe Black people are truly free in the U.S., they still need to find ways to “manifest freedom” in their daily lives.

“It’s our real Independence Day. We’re celebrating all we built for our country,” said SAYS organizer Patrice Hill.

Celebrating Juneteenth is about celebrating Black liberation, said SAYS organizer and event leader Denisha “Coco” Blossom. And given the nation’s current moment of political change and resistance, it’s even more important to take the time to reflect on how far the Black community has come, Blossom said.

“Just as they celebrate that freedom — Fourth of July — we want to celebrate our independence,” Blossom said. “We want to celebrate the last Black man being freed.”

March through East Sacramento

More than 40 demonstrators stopped traffic, at least momentarily, Friday evening as they marched through the heart of East Sacramento, one of the city’s wealthiest and least diverse neighborhoods.

The group of mostly young participants gathered in Bertha Henschel Park, before moving westward along H street, culminating among the pruned stems of McKinley Park’s Rose Garden for a discussion circle where organizer Stevante Clark spoke of the need to prioritize services for low-income communities over law enforcement funding.

The event gathered residents that looked to celebrate a “Black independence day” and commemorate Black victims of police violence. Many also viewed the event as an opportunity to protest in a more intimate setting than Cesar Chavez Plaza, where larger crowds have gathered on and off since the killing of a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis that electricified the nation.

“(Large) protests can become heavy on your mental state,” said Frantiska Rayfield, a 21-year old student from Arden Arcade, as she evaluated the transition of protests from the mass-scale seen immediately after the death of George Floyd to the more scattered events organized throughout the city for Juneteenth.

Others in attendance found the event’s small nature as reducing the risk of coronavirus transmission inherent in larger protests.

For organizers, a march in the largely residential corridors of East Sacramento also represented an opportunity to expand the “visibility” of demonstrations beyond the city’s central grid, said event organizer Demi Osborne.

As the event wined down with the sun, Clark called on those in the rose garden to consider options like a rent boycott as a means to call attention to the issues that disproportionately affect communities of color and maintain pressure on elected officials.

“When California coughs, the whole rest of the country sneezes,” he told the crowd.

Meanwhile, about 200 people walked at the state Capitol demanding an end to inequality and police brutality. That protest in the middle of 10th Street a few yards from the west steps of the downtown landmark included a large sign draped across a school bus that read “Black justice stands up.”

State officials also celebrated Juneteenth by lighting the Capitol’s dome in red, green and black, colors that represent the African diaspora.

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 3:23 PM.