Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in an expanded version in The Floyd Press on June 24, 2021.

Local Preacher George Jones invited people up to the amphitheater stage to dance at Saturday’s Juneteenth Celebration, hosted by Floyd CARE (Community Action for Racial Equity) at the Warren Lineberry Park. “I want to see someone out here flatfoot and shake a leg,” Jones joked.  The Roanoke band, Touch of Class, performed some Motown songs and other favorites as some attendees sang along.

Jones, who preaches at the Little River Missionary Baptist Church, thanked business event sponsors and let attendees know that the Virginia Department of Health was on site giving COVID vaccines for those who wanted them.

He also mentioned that representatives of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, Woman’s Resource Center, the Jessie Peterman Memorial Library, PFLAG and other supporters were in attendance. He introduced speakers, saying, “Sit back and learn a little about our heritage.”

Speakers included Rosa Lovo, Floyd County High School’s 2019 Valedictorian who spoke about the roots of the Juneteenth holiday, which was signed into law as a holiday this year by President Biden. The holiday observes the end of slavery in the U.S. and marks the date (June 19, 1865) that the news of emancipation reached people (late) in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy in Texas.

“During the 19th century Pulaski County had the highest number of enslaved people and recorded lynching out of all Southwest Virginia. In 1860, Floyd County was home to 16 freed persons of color and 475 enslaved people, totaling the population at 6% Black,” Lovo began.

Formal emancipation and the Reconstruction Era led to the rise of Jim Crow laws, particularly in the South, which, Lovo said, “allowed for the legal lynching, imprisonment, medical malpractice and terrorism in our neighborhoods.”

Lovo stated that since then the black community has grown and, through hope and resistance, and has found power and prominence throughout the nation. “But do not forget that blacks and all peoples of color still live in fear of random racial violence, shootings, police brutality, racial profiling…”

Other speakers spoke of historic events, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which 100s of Black residents were killed, about 10,000 were left homeless, and thousands were injured or interned when a mob of white residents burned and bombed homes and businesses in the thriving all-black district of Greenwood (also known as Black Wall Street), which resulted in collective trauma and the loss of generational wealth.

Another speaker spoke of the kidnapping, murder and mutilation of young Emmet Till in 1955, which drew national attention and sparked the American Civil Rights Movement.

Tracy Quesenberry, who presented “Medical Mistreatment of Blacks in America from Slavery to Present,” noted the upbeat and educational community event.

“All I want is to see this community grow and come together as it should. We all can live together in peace and love and all it takes is a little effort and love,” Quesenberry said. – Colleen Redman