Despite the rain, the city of Stone Mountain held its first ever Juneteenth celebration Saturday evening, an event seen in part as an attempt to repudiate the racist history associated with the area.
The soggy block party was meant to be the first of many in the shadow of the world’s largest granite monolith with its enduring Confederate imagery and a past marked by KKK meetings and cross burnings.
“I was just curious about Stone Mountain because everyone knows the history,” said Clifford Browning, 40, of Lithonia, who stopped by with his two children and niece. “I thought it would be something special.”
Browning and his family, who are Black, stood under a storefront awning to watch a Buffalo Soldier color guard.
“I think it’s pretty cool, celebrating when Black slaves were freed,” said his daughter Ari Browning, 11.
“It’s nice to see people coming together to celebrate this special day,” said her cousin Allison Sparrow, 10.
Nearly 100 people kicked off the event, strolling around vendor tables and gathering around a gazebo to hear speeches and songs. Organizers expected a much larger crowd before bad weather rolled in, said Chakira Johnson, mayor pro tempore of Stone Mountain.
The city considered canceling Saturday’s event, as nearby Decatur did, but decided to press on in part because some pieces of the program could not be rescheduled, Johnson said.
“We’re just still excited to have our first one,” she said. “We’re appreciative of all those who came out to join us and support us.”
The city decided in April to hold its first Juneteenth celebration and formed a committee to organize the event, which also featured a proclamation from the mayor and a tribute to the late civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis. A choir from Shermantown, a historic Black neighborhood within Stone Mountain Village, performed songs including “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “We Shall Overcome.”
But the day of celebration wasn’t without some controversy beforehand. Members of the City Council clashed earlier in the week after the event committee had denied a table to the Stone Mountain Action Coalition, a group advocating for changes to the Confederate symbols in Stone Mountain Park.
The organization was given permission to attend and hand out flyers, but they were not in evidence Saturday.
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when slaves in Galveston, Texas were told they had been freed, more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the Civil War. Juneteenth has been celebrated by the Black community for more than 100 years as the true end of slavery.
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