Oberlin Juneteenth celebration continues for 29th year

OBERLIN — Lorain County's longest-running celebration of Juneteenth filled Oberlin's George Abram Pavilion on Saturday. The city's 29th annual Juneteenth event marked 20 years since the city officially recognized the holiday in 2004, and three years since it was designated a federal holiday. Chairperson Valerie Lawson said it felt good to hold the event in Oberlin, in part because of the city's history as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The pavilion is just outside the city's Underground Railroad Center. That history is what Lawson wanted attendees to take away from Saturday's gathering. "It's not just a palace to come and meet people you haven't seen since last year," she said. "It's not just a place to come and get a good rib sandwich. It's a place to learn the history." Juneteenth marks when slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned of the Emancipation Proclaimation in 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the order. The Rev. Laurence Nevels Sr., of Christ Temple Apostolic Church in Oberlin, gave the morning's prayer — also noting the day's historical significance and his hope that future generations would carry it forward. Nevels read from "Awakening to Justice: Faithful Voices from an Abolitionist Past," which recognizes in part Oberlin's place as an integrated community far before its contemporaries. One of the book's authors, AG Miller, is a professor at Oberlin College and a local pastor and historian. Nevels quoted John Mercer Langston, an abolitionist, attorney and politician, in noting Oberlin's churches welcomed its Black community as equals as part of the "Oberlin experiment in interracial Christian community," he said. Langston was a graduate of Oberlin College and lived in the city for about 15 years. He eventually moved to found the Law department at Howard University and became the first Black man elected to Congress from Virginia. "The treatment (afforded) to colored people in Oberlin socially at this time, 1830 and 1840, was most remarkable," Nevels read. "In keeping however with the professions religiously, politically and educationally made by the founders of the community." Donnay Edmund, of New York, and an Oberlin College alumnus, read the 1863 Emancipation Proclaimation and a 2024 proclaimation from Council President Eboni Johnson. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.