Community and history recognized at Juneteenth celebration in Grant Park: 'It does my heart good'

Jun. 19—When she was president of the African American club on Fairchild Air Force Base in the late 1990s, organizing the first of the area's Juneteenth celebrations, Peggie Troutt had a clear goal: education.

She'd lead games with kids in attendance, passing out sheets filled with trivia questions about the holiday's history. She brought extra pencils with her for kids who didn't think to bring one.

"No excuses," she said.

It was critical to her that the younger generations learn the value of Juneteenth as a community unifier and recognition of the true end of slavery. They can then proudly exchange their culture with others, she said.

"It's important because it's their history. It's not just for the African Americans, it's for all of the children," Troutt said. "They're all friends, they're coming closer these days, so they might be able to share with their friends, and their friends can share some of their history."

She wanted to instill in them the significance of the holiday so that she had someone to pass the torch to when she retired in 2005.

Inland Northwest Juneteenth Coalition co-chairs Michael Bethely and Alan Jones received the torch and made Troutt proud, she said. On Wednesday, the coalition hosted its 14th annual Juneteenth park celebration at Grant Park, the conclusion to a series of events in honor of the holiday.

"I just love it; I love seeing it," Troutt said, watching kids clamor onto a bouncy house and families standing 70-people deep in a line for barbecue and fried catfish. "It does my heart good."

Raised in Arkansas, Bethely said Juneteenth was always a large affair in his childhood. His hometown's annual June Dinner is the longest-running celebration in the state, this year is their 150th year. He lived right across the street from the festivities.

"It was an eye-opening experience for me; this is my culture. These are my people," Bethely said. "Trying to bring that here to Spokane has always been the goal, really to bring the community together, to give us an opportunity to fellowship with not only the Black community, but everybody who wants to come and celebrate with us."

Juneteenth is commonly celebrated in the Southern United States, getting its start in Galveston Bay, Texas in 1865 when Union troops arrived to spread the news of their freedom, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation.

The holiday became federally recognized in 2021, and Bethely said the designation has improved turnout at his festivities, making more aware of the holiday in Northern states.

Brenda Traylor was raised in Texas, where Juneteenth celebrations were large and commonplace. The director of the Spokane Community Gospel Mass Choir, who sang at the event, closely links gospel music with Juneteenth history. Enslaved people held their faith close, to give them hope when they couldn't find it anywhere else, she said.

"When you think about enslaved people and the lack of hope that they had, they had to hold onto something to survive," she said.

She led her choir, with membership from multiple churches, in singing "'Tis the old Ship of Zion," a hymn sung by enslaved people to instill hope, she said.

"Not necessarily hope of freedom from this land," she said. "But hope they'd one day be rescued by Jesus."

She chose the song intentionally to showcase the grim history of slavery. Without this reminder, "we're prone to repeat our history that is not good," she said.

She's troubled by some states restricting lessons on Black history, especially pertinent when there are currently racial disparities in education, health care and property, she stated.

"We are still struggling; we're doing better, but we have a long way to go," she said. "We built this country on our backs. We are American history, and we deserve to be recognized."

Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.