“Seven years ago, the Oxford Juneteenth Festival began as a party with a purpose,” Cecilia Webb, event coordinator, said. In 2008, Webb and several other persons organized an annual county wide celebration on or before June 19 to observe the abolition of slavery, that took place 150 years ago in Galveston, Texas. Over the years, the festival has grown in numbers of vendors as well as participants from the community.
This year’s festival, located in the Oxford Intermediate School parking lot, hosted 40 vendors that featured free food and activities. As adults savored crawfish boiling, and BBQ ribs steaming, children of all ages slid down water slides and stood in line to get their faces painted. Popular hip-hop music and cheers from the crowd filled Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as the Panola County High Steppers, The Love Sisters, and several black Greek organizations from the University of Mississippi performed.
“It took a lot of hard work, but hard work pays off,” says Webb. In the beginning years of organizing the annual celebration, many local persons were unaware of the term “Juneteenth.” Kesha Howell-Atkinson, event co-organizer, is responsible for contacting community leaders, vendors and public figures. She explains that many of them, by the name, did not know what Juneteenth meant. Persons weren’t responsive of the celebration as she had hoped until she began to explain the history of Juneteenth. As a result, they were curious to understand more and eager to render their services, supplies and support.
As the support of the community grew, so did the diversity. Webb hopes that in the years to come, the festival will educate more persons across all races, but that begins with relocating the festival beyond Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
“This can allow us to mend things in our communities that we haven’t before,” said Kathy Thompson from Tupelo, Miss.
Thompson and her 9-year-old son Kemaury have travelled to the annual event over the past three years. He says his favorite part was the water slide, but she made sure he understood the importance of the celebration.
The weekend of events began Friday evening with an education segment at Locals discussing the history of Juneteenth and issues involving African Americans today. Sunday closed out the weekend of events with Praise in the Park, a gospel concert at Stone Park. Over 500 persons participated in the weekend’s events.
