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Holiday catching on in Ark City

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

Food, games and fun will mark the third annual Juneteenth celebration in Arkansas City this weekend.

The day-long event will start around 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Lovie Watson Park, at Sixth Street and Birch Avenue, an event organizer said.

It has drawn bigger crowds each year and is expected to draw several hundred this year.

"The kids really enjoy it," said Roy Walker, a co-founder of the Ark City Juneteenth celebration.

Juneteenth is an annual holiday in 14 states marking the announcement of the abolition of slavery. It started in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.

For many years, Texas was the primary home of Juneteenth celebrations.

Local city official and Cowley College counselor Bruce Watson knows how big Juneteenth is in Texas. He worked for the Texas governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

"Juneteenth was a gigantic celebration there," Watson said today. "Now people in the north are becoming aware of it."

Watson said he was a little surprised at how Juneteenth has caught on in Ark City, where African-Americans make up about 3 percent to 4 percent of the population.

But to think of Juneteenth as exclusively an African-American celebration would be wrong. It is for the entire community.

"The government is canonizing it, fairly recently," said former mayor Charles Jennings. "But within the ethnic culture, they celebrated it for well over a century."

Jennings noted that the slaves in Texas learned of their emancipation late. President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.

Thus, Juneteenth is a "paradox celebration; it sort of mocks the fact that they didn't get the word out to the slaves for a long time."

But the history behind the celebration doesn't play big in Ark City, Watson said. One thing Ark City loves to do is to party. And getting to know our neighbors is really what the celebration here is all about.

"This is not a black organization but a city-wide opportunity to express love for each other," Watson said.

Walker co-founded the event with his cousin, Marshall Dixon.

"We'll have family-oriented entertainment," Walker said. "A DJ from Winfield will provide music."

The kids can get their faces painted and enjoy a dunk tank, he said. There will be a three-on-three basketball tournament and a talent contest.

Another game that kids may enjoy is a fast-pitch contest provided by Lewis Allen, a worker in the city street department. Allen will bring hardballs, softballs, a radar gun and a catcher's mitt device known as a "bullpen," he said.

"The kids throw at a mitt and I clock their speed," Allen said. "There are prizes for everyone."

Vendors will offer food and soft drinks including hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, tacos and ice cream.

The Northwest Community Center will be available in case of bad weather or for people who want to get out of the heat, he said.

Community leaders including the police chief and city manager are expected to attend this year's event, Watson said.