Black Miners Bar, Folsom Lake State Recreation Area

More About Healing Than Holidays and Heroes by Thomas Stratton, CALPA Board Member

A follow up to our successful Juneteenth U.S.A. 2022 event leaves me with the idea of where to take the momentum of our accomplishment. First, this accomplishment is a peaceful celebration of freedom dedicated to our children around the idea of healing past injustice.

The temporary name change of Negro Bar to Black Miners Bar portends a future of reflecting on our past as a nation. And then finding our way to a future that respectfully venerates our ancestors who found freedom in the West mining for gold along the American River.

After this year’s Juneteenth, I am interested in exploring how this holiday can bring California state park cooperating associations around to implementing ethnic diversity in leadership. I argue that Juneteenth National Independence Day, this national celebration of freedom, can serve as a place to begin outreach, to build a connection around a holiday celebrated by African Americans for over a century. This history offers a means to connect with a local, state, and national community of freedom-loving Americans who maintain a tradition of celebrating Juneteenth outdoors with cookouts, among other things.

A cookout in a California state park to celebrate Juneteenth National Independence Day can be tailored to build organizational bonds, shared leadership, and care for the future of our youth. Our cooperating association boards can lead the way in realizing how to make a place for Black leadership by planning for Juneteenth 2023.

This holiday makes way for a greater current objective that is healing past injustice in the interest of a future where unity is celebrated in terms of freedom for people of African descent.