Songs for the dead: Oberlin celebrates Juneteenth with singing and dancing

OBERLIN — J'me Hood wore pan-African red, yellow, green and black Saturday as she marched down East Vine Street on her way to Oberlin's Juneteenth Festival. Waving a ribbon in circles, the 12-year-old from Lorain led the African Royalty dance group in a parade to the green space next to the George Abram Memorial Pavilion. Hood and company had been practicing their dance steps since April — the intricate movements were a celebration of the end of American slavery 157 years ago, she said. "I want everyone who sees to learn about the history of my people," she said. Juneteenth became a federal holiday last year. It commemorates the day, more than two months after the formal end of the Civil War, that word reached Galveston, Texas, proclaiming freedom for all enslaved people. "Having it be an actual holiday that's recognized is really exciting," said Annessa Wyman of the Oberlin African-American Genealogy and History Group. "It puts it more on Front Street for everybody, and I think it opens it up more so people realize it's not just an African-American thing. It is a celebration that's for our country — it was a major change for our nation and our nation will never be the same as it was then, thank God." Juneteenth should be a time when all Americans reflect on the experiences of their ancestors, she said. The struggle of Black Americans changed the entire course of the nation, and Wyman said she is awed by what they endured. "You think, 'How are we even here today? How did they make it through all that?'" she said. Oberlin abolitionist Wilson Bruce Evans, who lived from 1817 to 1886 and opened his house to travelers along the Underground Railroad, would be thrilled to learn the the entire country now celebrates Juneteenth, Carol Lasser said. She is emerita professor of history at Oberlin College and manager of the Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society. Evans' house on East Vine Street, just a stone's throw from where Saturday's celebration was held, is being restored. Lasser received word Friday that a $30,000 grant has been approved by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office to replace the 1927 porch with a historically appropriate stoop in a joint effort with the city and Oberlin Heritage Center. The home will also get a new roof via another grant, with work likely to commence in July, Lasser said. Electricity has recently been restored to the old home. The house is important to Oberlin and national history because escaped slaves were given shelter there as they fled north to Canada. Lasser said African American residents of Oberlin were crucial to keeping the abolition movement pushing forward. Evans and his brother Henry, who were Black, were deeply involved in the fight, she said: "These were people who really wanted freedom, not just in the sense of emancipation, but in terms of racial justice and equality." Generations of slaves died in captivity. A New Orleans-style "second line" parade wound its way Saturday through Oberlin to Westwood Cemetery, mourning those whose only escape from bondage was the release of death. Oberlin Juneteenth board member Adenike Sharpley previously said the procession with horns and dancing, often used in Louisiana funerals, was meant to ease the tormented souls of African Americans. "We hope that wherever they are is better than when they were here on Earth," she said. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.