UAMS Celebrates Juneteenth with Online Event
| June 30, 2021 | On the very day that President Joe Biden signed legislation making June 19 a national holiday, the UAMS Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DDEI) hosted its second annual Juneteenth celebration, once again virtual because of the ongoing pandemic.
The Juneteenth trivia game included a question about the status of the bill making it a national holiday, which was awaiting the president’s signature at the time.
“When we think about Juneteenth, we’re looking backwards,” said Odette Woods, senior director for staff diversity, equity and inclusion, referring to the holiday’s origins when, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and all slaves had been freed.
“But we’re also looking forward, because we know there’s a lot of hope,” Woods continued. “We know that Juneteenth is a special time for us to get together and celebrate, with music and with poetry and with food. It’s a great time of fellowship. There’s a lot of joy in Juneteenth.”
And joy was certainly part of the June 17 online celebration, kicked off with the Black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and continuing with poetry and music videos by Sam Cooke and Earth, Wind, and Fire. Videos played during the celebration also focused on its history and argued the importance of every American celebrating the occasion, not just the African American community. Participants also played a game of Juneteenth trivia, with the event ending with a group Juneteenth “cha cha” dance.
During the event, Woods invited participants to share memories of their own celebrations.
Sharanda Williams, assistant dean for student affairs and diversity in the College of Medicine, reminisced on past annual concerts hosted by radio station Power 92 – begun in the late 1980s and continuing today as Power Jam, but for a time celebrated with the name Juneteenth.
“It was like the Black Riverfest, a real party and a safe space to celebrate,” she said of the concerts, which historically have featured a wide range of local, regional and national artists and drawn crowds in the tens of thousands to the River Market Amphitheater in Little Rock.
Woods’ daughter Kimberly, who also attended the celebration, shared her memories of those events and the importance learning Black history had always played in her life.
Kimberly Woods, along with other attendees, danced the “Cha-Cha Slide” to close out the celebration.
“Growing up, I remember feeling like there wasn’t a lot of diversity, so knowing we could all come out together and have fun in a space that was fun for us, that stuck with me,” she said. “As a community, we didn’t often get a lot of public wins, and there weren’t a lot of things we could celebrate as a group.”
In addition to the Juneteenth online event, DDEI created a website linking to other local celebrations across the state during the June 19 weekend, as well as resources to aid in celebration including videos of music, poetry, reading and other entertainment.