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Juneteenth celebrated at Franklin Park

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 20, 2009 07:22 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Correspondent

Back in the day, Roxbury had an open-door policy, says Karen Marsh.

"Those were the good times," said the 40-year-old dance teacher. "Everybody left their doors open, everybody knew each other. You had 100 mothers because everybody was everybody's mother."

Now residents mingle with people who have moved away and return to the old neighborhood to reminisce and enjoy each other's company at the Juneteenth and Roxbury Homecoming, she said. The event held today at Franklin Park began in 1997 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States and to celebrate the neighborhood. Two years ago, Governor Deval Patrick signed a proclamation at the park proposing June 19 as a national holiday to honor the date in 1865 when the last people held as slaves in the country learned of their freedom.

"We've been coming for nine years, I look forward to it every year," said Marsh, who still lives in the neighborhood and sat on the lawn with some friends at today's event.

Hundreds gathered under canopies and umbrellas scattered throughout the park. Patties and sausages sizzled on barbecue grills, and loudspeakers boomed the funky sounds of the R&B band Earth, Wind and Fire. But the day is more than a picnic, said Teddy Scott."It is a celebration of freedom," he said.

Two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the last of the enslaved people in the United States learned they were free when Union Major General Gordon Granger landed in Texas June 19, 1865 and spread the news of the end of the Civil War.

Scott, 73, said he did not know this until he was in his 30s. Digging into black history was his own self-venture, he said, teachers did not teach it in school.

"I knew all about George Washington but never knew about Juneteenth, never even knew there were black soldiers who fought in the Union army," he said.

Scott gathered under a large white canopy with other members of the Band of Angels, a Roxbury "street gang that decided to turn good" in 1958 and has since then become a social and service organization. Many of them marched with Martin Luther King for Civil Rights during the 1960s in Selma, he said.

Not everyone under his tent got along in the past, however, he said. Some were enemies. In Roxbury, there were once street clubs, or gangs, on every block that fought each other with knives or bats, said Scott, who grew up in the neighborhood.

"We fought amongst ourselves. It was not like it is today, when you have some people shooting up everybody," he said.

Nevertheless, the fighting could get brutal. He and the original members of the Angels organization began talking with leaders of the other gangs to try to stop the fighting. They all made up their differences years ago, Scott said. Now some have come from as far as California and Florida to have some barbecue.

"We all grew up together. Even though some us were all rivals, we are all friends now, " Scott said. "It is all brotherly love."

Mariah Wornum, 18, stood eating with her family under a tent a few steps away. She grew up in Roxbury and now lives in Dorchester. She has been coming to the event for the past eight years to get together with her family and to celebrate her heritage, she said.

"You always need to know the struggles of your own culture," she said. "You need to know where you come from."

As Patrick made his way into the event today, he answered questions from a cluster of reporters on the proposed sales tax budget, saying he will veto the legislation unless he receives a strong ethics reform bill. But keeping the politics brief, he went on to meet friends and laud volunteers at the Juneteenth celebration.

"I love this day," he said. "It is a great family reunion."