Juneteenth, Fresh Faces

by The Current June 18th, 2023June 17th, 2023

Sunday Solutions — June 18, 2023

This weekend is a time to honor Juneteenth, a commemoration of the day Black enslaved Americans learned they were legally freed more than two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was signed. We’ll take a moment this weekend to recognize Father’s Day, too, but not before we introduce our summer student reporting staff and send you out with some things to do and hard facts to ponder.

Meet our summer reporting staff

The Current welcomes five summer student reporters to Coastal Georgia. We thank our generous donors who believe in our core missions, part of which has always been to help pave the way for the next generation of journalists. Summer is a highlight for us and we hope it is for you, too.

Kailey Cota is a data reporting intern at The Current through the Dow Jones News Fund. She recently graduated from the University of South Carolina and was named the 2021 S.C. Collegiate Journalist of the Year. She worked at The Daily Gamecock, USC’s student newspaper, and was most recently the editor-in-chief. She previously reported for The Post and Courier and The State newspapers, covering a range of topics including general assignment news, politics, crime and business.
Jabari Gibbs, from Atlanta, is a senior at Georgia Southern University. Majoring in communications, he is the editor-in-chief for The George-Anne Inkwell where his investigative pieces have led to change at the university. As the recipient of an Emma Bowen Foundation Fellowship, Jabari works with The Current to increase diverse perspectives in the news.
Audrey Gibbs is a summer fellow for The Current covering investigations. She recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School in New York City, where she received her master of science in journalism. She studied English at Sewanee: The University of the South. Audrey has interned for Ms. magazine, where she wrote a bi-weekly column titled “Tools of the Patriarchy,” as well as American Songwriter magazine. Audrey has covered general news, investigations, the arts and women’s health in both print and audio forms.
Sarah Harwell is a Florida native and rising senior at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She has served as a brand engagement manager for Centric magazine and beat reporter for NSM Today, both student-run publications at UCF, as well as interned at i4 business magazine. She works as an ambassador team co-coordinator at the UCF Arboretum and is an officer of the campus chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. Sarah comes to The Current as a Dow Jones News Fund audience engagement intern.
Caelen McQuilkin is a student at Amherst College from Lee Vining, California. She has worked as a managing news editor and managing features editor for The Amherst Student, the student newspaper for Amherst College. She worked as a staff reporter for The Mammoth Times, the regional newspaper that covers her hometown. Caelen believes reporting and writing can help fill in the complex picture of a place. Caelen’s summer work is made possible by the Charles Hamilton Houston Internship Program at Amherst College.

The crew is out covering Juneteenth events this weekend, so be sure to say hello if you see them. And, check out their coverage from the weekend on The Current’s Instagram (@thecurrentga), Twitter feed (@thecurrentga) and thecurrentga.org.

Get out: Juneteenth

If you missed Saturday’s Juneteenth events, there are more on Sunday and Monday. Here’s a quick list so you can plan your days.

St. Mary’s: Freedom and Justice Coalition Juneteenth Celebration Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Mary’s Waterfront Park, 100 W. St. Mary’s Street. Freedom parade, business venders, guest speakers
Tybee: Juneteenth: Celebration of Freedom and Unity, continues Sunday and Monday. 11 a.m. Sunday, Tybrisa Street with vendors , food, live music. Monday: Wade-in at 9 a.m. Link for info.
Savannah: Georgia Southern University will officially open its Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center at 11 a.m. Monday at 13040 Abercorn St. at Armstrong Center. Festivities with artists, the McIntosh County Shouters and food vendors will run until 2 p.m.

What do you know?

We’ve started a weekly news quiz for you to test your knowledge against what you’ve read over the past few days. You can play every week via Instagram or right here. Here’s this week’s quiz. Click here to see how well you do.

Your second cup: More clarity for our histories

The telling of history, as we know it, evolves as researchers uncover information — facts — buried over time. This week, ProPublica shares the story of a grad student at the College of Charleston who found advertising for an 1835 slave auction larger than any historian has yet identified. The announcement for the 600-person sale surpasses the “Weeping Time” auction in Savannah, long thought to be the largest. Lauren Davila found the ad in digitized old newspapers and worked to find out more about the previously undocumented sale. Davila’s detailed research forms a deep lesson on the connections of generational wealth and poverty that now permeate our culture and daily lives.