RETIRED teacher and rights activist Ambrose M. Bennett is hosting Juneteenth on June 19 at the Civic Center beach in Susupe.
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day and Black Independence Day, commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger who proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in Texas, the last Confederate state with institutional slavery.
Bennett, on behalf of the African American community, said it is his pleasure, honor and duty to host this year’s Juneteenth memorial celebration.
Helping him organize the event are former Coastal Resource Management Director Dr. John Joyner and attorney Joe Hill.
Bennett also thanked Rep. Tina Sablan for donating the use of a canopy for the celebration this Sunday.
Bennett said people will start gathering at 12 noon, and there will be short remarks and a story-sharing session before food is served.
He said it will be a “soul food and local food potluck gathering, and everyone is invited.
“So please bring a dish or dessert to share. There will be some great food, horseshoes, dominos, and playing-card games — please come and join us in this Juneteenth celebration,” Bennett said.
For all Americans
He said Juneteenth is not just for African Americans, but for all Americans.
But he noted that CNMI governors have not commemorated Juneteenth which became a federal holiday last year.
He said Dr. Martin Luther King once challenged those in the civil rights movement by asking them: “If not you, then who; and if not now, then when?”
“So I decided that someone must do something to start celebrating Juneteenth and MLK Day in the CNMI,” he said.
“The liberation of Africans from slavery was just the first step in the long egregiously difficult climb to the mountain top of equality where all men/women in America will arrive at ‘the valley of freedom and equality,’ ” Bennett said.
He added that just being free doesn’t mean that the former African slaves were equal, “as we had to first overcome the ‘separate-but-equal’ racist doctrine and it is still a battle to tear down the walls, barriers and even laws that promote and defend white racial superiority and control of the electorate.”
He added, “We went from being called ‘jungle-bunnies’ to ni***** to negros to blacks and finally African Americans. It has been only in the past 50 years that we finally got the formal title of being recognized as African Americans. But I think America and the world can now see in live and living color that racism is still alive and well in America with white Supremacy ideologists and their insurrection at the Capitol, the manipulation of voting laws to favor white gerrymandered districts, and even terroristic attacks at churches and schools against people-of-color being even more pronounced and more disruptive to our society than ever before since the Civil War era.”
For more information about Juneteenth, call Ambrose M. Bennett at (670) 286-2727.
Retired teacher Ambrose Bennett speaks during a public comment portion of a House session in March.
