Melissa Bailey Photo
As two black leaders reflected on a past barrier to black freedom, they saw a current threat — not white supremacist’s lynchings, but black-on-black violence.
West Rock Alderman Carlton Staggers and Rev. Scott Marks made that observation Friday afternoon as the aldermanic Black and Hispanic Caucus gathered to host an annual celebration called Juneteenth. The holiday, which marks the end of slavery by Texas on June 19, 1865, serves as a yearly celebration of black freedom.
Aldermen, activists and religious leaders from several faiths gathered at the Edgewood Park Duck Pond to mark the occasion.
Staggers, who’s 45, recalled confronting blatant racism as he visited Kinstree, South Carolina, growing up. He recalled seeing the Klu Klux Klan as a 10-year-old boy.
“Back in the day, we we worried about white men killing us,” he said. “Now we’re worried about our own kind killing each other.”
“There are a lot of people rolling in their graves right now,” Staggers reflected.
His remarks echoed the urgent cry of Renee Davis, whose 19-year-old son was killed the week before. “You remember when Martin Luther King marched? He marched for our freedom? We’re killing each other over crazy things,” she said at police press conference Thursday announcing the arrest of her son’s alleged killer.
At Friday’s Juneteenth event, Staggers read aloud a list of some of the 34 homicide victims of the past year as his son, Corey, played saxophone (pictured at the top of this story).
Rev. Marks (pictured above) issued the same message.
“We are not free,” he said, when so many people are unemployed, imprisoned, and falling prey to gun violence. He prayed for “freedom from the violence in our community.”
Marks said black ancestors awaited New Year’s Day of 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
Now, instead of awaiting that day, “we watch every night to see if our children come home tonight,” he said.
“We cry out for the same freedom the slaves cried out for.”
Peyton Douglass helped scatter petals in memory of those who have died.
Staggers, who's 45, recalled confronting blatant racism as he visited Kinstree, South Carolina, growing up. He recalled seeing the Klu Klux Klan as a 10-year-old boy.
"Back in the day, we we worried about white men killing us," he said. "Now we're worried about our own kind killing each other."
And back in the day we had Black Politicians and Preachers who worked for the people like Adam Clayton Powell,Oscar Stanton De Priest.George Thomas "Mickey" Leland,Shirley Chisholm,Rev.herbert daughtry,Rev.Nat Turner and Rev.Denmark Vesey.Now we have Black selected officials only listen and tap dance to the Democratic Party.So please don't put all of the problems of Black kill Blacks.Black Politicians are just as much to blame for the Black communities down fall.In fact how many of these Black Politicians black the mayor for reelection.
The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our society, because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask him so to do.
Marcus Garvey.