The Juneteenth flag is once again waving above the parking lot at Village Hall on Des Plaines Avenue, as local officials hoisted it up June 1 during the annual ceremony at the start of the month.
To commemorate the end of slavery in the United States, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. It recognizes the day in 1865 when, about two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Union soldiers told nearly 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas that they were free.
“We’re getting ready to celebrate the 250th year of the United States of America, but of course the transatlantic slave trade predated the founding of our country,” said Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, a Galveston native, during the June 1 flag raising. “We’re here to celebrate the progress that was made when the country decided to do the right thing and that humans would not be treated as chattel labor.”
Other speakers at the event emphasized the need for ongoing efforts for freedom and equity.
“Juneteenth has never been about pretending everything worked out because it didn’t. When enslaved people in Texas learned that they were free in 1865, they weren’t handed land, wealth or protection. They were handed freedom and left to figure out what to do with it,” said Monique Cotton-Yancy, a District 91 school board member. “And what did they do? They built anyway, they gathered anyway, they celebrated anyway. That’s the part of Juneteenth that doesn’t get talked about enough, not just the freedom, but the rebuilding. If we’re being honest, that part still feels familiar. We’re still rebuilding.”
Roman Billups, a Black student at Proviso Math and Science Academy, shared why he was inspired by African Americans’ resilience to fight for a better future.
“Juneteenth is a day that shows the greatness and importance of African American integration in our society,” Billups said. “In a country that’s been so heavily divided, it’s important to have representation for all communities in America, especially for African Americans who have, for years and centuries, been mishandled and poorly treated by our American government and systems around us.”
Juneteenth pool party
Hoskins brought Juneteenth celebrations to Forest Park starting in 2009 with the annual Juneteenth pool party at the Park District of Forest Park’s aquatic center. He previously told the Review that he helped organize the party there because public pools and beaches were one of the last places to be integrated.
This year’s Juneteenth pool party is June 13 from 7 to 10 p.m.