Yalanda “Sassy” Honorable has seen Juneteenth celebrations and block parties where the entire town came together to celebrate. Honorable said she was first introduced to Juneteenth when she lived in Milwuakee, WI.
“They do it real big, and they do it every year. They shut down Martin Luther King [Blvd.] for about five or six blocks, and they have a celebration. At first, I didn’t know what Juneteenth was, but when I learned what it was, it was on,” she said.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in America, it only ended slavery in the Confederate states. Technically, slavery didn’t end until December 6, 1865 when the 13th amendment was ratified.
However, on June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and his soldiers went to Galveston, Texas, and read General Order 3 to the enslaved people there to inform them they were free.
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
Because enslaved people were not allowed to read or write, they didn’t know they were no longer enslaved. When they realized this, they began to celebrate thus bringing the tradition of Juneteenth – a mash up of June and nineteenth.
Honorable said that she wanted to bring the same thing to Duck Hill. She said when she began to tell people what her plans were, they were confused.
“Now that it’s recognized as a national independence day, I really wanted to have a celebration,” she said. “Every time I told someone what I wanted to do, they looked at me like ‘Huh?’ ‘What?’”
But, she was determined to give her community a piece of what she witnessed when she was younger.
“Our new mayor-elect, Al White, spoke and we had live performers. We also had our Pure Royalty Dance Squad and our Pure Royalty Adult Dance Squad to perform also,” she said. “We had about 100-150 people to come it. It was a really good turnout.”
Honorable said when she was younger, she was dark-skinned, and she was bullied because of her complexion.
“My momma would put a lot of grease on me and people made fun of my complexion and it made me really insecure,” she said.
Honorable said she battled with it, at one point wanting to bleach her skin. She said she wanted to show younger children no matter how fair, light or dark complexioned you are, Black is beautiful.
“I wanted to celebrate our blackness. This was Pure Royalty’s first public event. We have royalty in our DNA and people need to know that. Period,” Honorable said.
“We had a great turnout. It didn’t rain. A lot of people thought it would, but it didn’t and God is good. We want it to get bigger and better each year. I want to a like a rose that grows in a dead place. Wake these dry bones up. I believe God has placed me here to speak life to the dry bones,” she said, referencing Ezekiel 37:1-14.
