Slideshows: Coastal Georgia celebrates Juneteenth 2024

Celebrations for Juneteenth spanned the week and coast from Woodbine to Sapelo to Savannah and Tybee and Port Wentworth. 

If you miss the day’s celebrations, Port Wentworth has you covered: It continues the festival spirit from 5-9 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Port Wentworth City Hall, 7224 GA 21. 

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Tybee Island unites present with past

As waves crashed into the Tybee Island shoreline, a small crowd gathered on the beach to commemorate the abolition of slavery in 1865 and the city’s civil rights history. Accompanied by the sounds of the sea, community leaders and Gullah Geechee elders spoke of freedom, forgiveness and faith. 

Organized by the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization, the city’s 4th annual Juneteenth celebration spanned from June 16 to June 19 and culminated in the 11th annual Wade-In on the pier. The wade-in ritual honors the bravery of 11 African-American students who were arrested on Tybee Island on Aug. 17, 1960, as they attempted to swim in the whites-only public beach. 

On June 19, the African-American community congregated on the land that was once denied to them to celebrate their liberation in 1865, the diligent work of their ancestors in escaping oppression and the promise of the next generation. Julia Pearce and Mallory Pearce, founders of the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization commenced the celebration by reading an excerpt from the Emancipation Proclamation and introducing two speakers – Savannah attorney Chadrick Mance and Underground Tours founder, Patt Gunn. 

In a cream-colored suit and brown loafers on the sand, Chadrick Mance delivered the occasion, discussing the importance of persistent work to guarantee freedom for all. Led by Mance, the group recognized the ultimate end to slavery on June 19, 1865, when 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston Bay, Texas, were finally freed. 

“What Juneteenth really signified was that it took an entire nation to free the conscience of America,” Mance said. “When we freed the slaves at Galveston through announcement, we didn’t just free them, we freed democracy.”

Patt Gunn, Savannah-native, tour guide and civil rights advocate, followed Chadrick Mance. In her speech, Gunn acknowledged the rich cultural history of the enslaved population and honored ancestors including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Tunis Campbell by pouring libations of indigo-water onto the sand. Before leading the procession into the ocean, Gunn emphasized the healing power of water and the unburdening of generational guilt. 

“None of us that are here this morning are responsible for the deeds of our ancestors,” she said. “When you get in that water, I need y’all to release that … it’s time to release the burden of another generation.”

After Gunn’s speech, she began singing “Wade In The Water,” a famous gospel song from the Underground Railroad. 

“Wade in the water / Wade in the water, children / God is gonna trouble these waters,” the crowd sang, supported by the Salt Wata Players & The Samba Drummers.

– Catherine Goodman

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Hinesville marks Juneteenth with celebration, reflection 

Before dawn on June 15, dozens of people started walking from Riceboro’s Briar Bay Park to Dorchester Academy in Midway. The annual fundraising event commemorates the 9.2-mile distance many Black students in Liberty County had to walk to get an education during Reconstruction and Georgia’s Jim Crow years.

The walk was part of a dynamic series of events across Liberty County, Coastal Georgia’s only majority minority county, to commemorate the Juneteenth holiday.

In 1866, formerly enslaved Freedman’s Bureau and Reconstruction legislator William A. Golding founded the Homestead School to educate Black residents. He asked the American Missionary Association to send teachers to help, donated an acre of land for the school, and later got ongoing help from the Congregational Church. In 1878, the school was renamed Dorchester Academy. 

While the school has been closed since 1940, Dorchester Academy remains an important gathering place for civil rights activists. In the mid-20th Century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Andrew Young, and other Civil Rights leaders ran the “Citizenship Academy,” teaching Black activists from across the South about voting rights and sending them home to teach others. 

In the Saturday morning heat, several people walking to the school got overheated, and shuttles picked up those too tired or hot to continue. 

District 5 Commissioner Gary Gilliard and neighbor David Leslie John, both 68, finished the walk in 2.5 hours. 

Catina Anderson, who completed the walk, reflected on the students who had to walk miles to and from school to get an education. 

At Hinesville’s Juneteenth celebration in Bryant Commons Park, beekeepers Quentin Jones, 11, and Tamarus Jones, 12, showed off a demonstration hive and sold honey at their booth, as sister Chloe Jones, 2, grinned and waved from her stroller. A couple of years ago, the brothers wanted to take part in the Liberty County Children’s Business Fair and their dad suggested they try beekeeping. Three Smart Bees is based in Liberty County and cares for several hives, each of which produces 60 to 90 pounds of honey.

Free blood pressure and blood sugar tests, offered by the community health group Quad-E Organization, gave festival-goers a chance to learn ways to control or avoid serious conditions like diabetes. In 2021 in Liberty County, as many as 15,8% of adults over 20 had diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black Americans are disproportionately at risk for diabetes, which can set off many other health problems.

Nearby, a group of teenage boys with The Eleven Black Men of Liberty County, Inc., sold raffle tickets. The mentorship group also does volunteer work, helping the Manna House food pantry and adopting Button Gwinnett Elementary and Snelson-Golden Middle School.

Manning the table was Shyee Golden,12, a rising sixth grader at Midway Middle School, selling raffle tickets. He wasn’t sure what Juneteenth was about. When he learned the story, he thought for a minute, then said, “Cool.” 

The group’ vice-president, Flournoy Tyson, said the participation of so many young adults in the activities are part of a goal to raise a new generation of civic activists. “These kids, I’m trying to get them to talk to people, hear them speak and stuff,” he said. “If they start now, by the time they get to eleventh grade, it’ll be easy.” The group, run by older adults, is seeking mentors under 40 to carry on its legacy.

— Robin Kemp

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Gullah Geechee Heritage Center, Georgia Southern Armstrong Campus

Black cultural performers, artists and academics headlined the fourth  annual Juneteenth commemoration at Georgia Southern University’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center on Saturday.

Dozens gathered for the three-hour event at the new center — opened a year ago to celebrate and preserve Gullah Geechee culture — to appreciate performances by the Sankofa dancers and the Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters. The university’s own Call Me MiSter Program, which aims to increase diversity among Georgia’s teachers, also presented folktales. Author and professor of African American Studies Dr. Daniel Black delivered a speech. 

While Saturday’s Juneteenth commemoration ended at 2 p.m., Dr. Maxine Bryant, director of both the Center for Africana Studies and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center, said the center is dedicated to uplifting the Gullah Geechee culture year-round through research and programming. 

“So we’re not just preaching what we’re living, but living what we’re preaching,” Dr. Bryant said. 

The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of enslaved Africans from the coastal South. The center celebrates and preserves the community’s distinct language — Gullah, a mix of Creole and African dialects — and cultural practices including quilting, knitting fishing nets, and basket-making. Notably, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a member of the Pin Point Gullah Geechee community. 

The commemoration showcased these intricate, handmade Gullah Geechee baskets crafted at a workshop Friday. 

Past the main atrium where the performances were held, vendors sold art, beauty products, and jewelry. Sabreee, of Sabreee’s Gullah Art Gallery, laid out her colorful multimedia paintings: one displayed a Gullah Geechee family picnicking on a quilt beneath wiry Spanish moss. Another vendor advertised custom-made poetry paired with historical prints. 

Lea Miller’s painted wood earrings have been at the Gullah Geechee Heritage Center’s Juneteenth commemoration for three years. She said she appreciates the event’s diverse crowd and returning customers. For inspiration, Miller taps into African symbols.

“With these earrings, not just today, but every day…we can take a little bit of our culture and heritage with us,” Miller said.

– Amira McKee, Julia Gentin