Alders Celebrate Juneteenth

Red, pink, white, and yellow flowers lay at the foot of the Amistad Memorial in front of City Hall Friday afternoon as Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks broke into impromptu song.

She was waiting for local artist Truey Sensei to deliver a rap performance. While he got his speaker set up, she took a microphone and sang.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,” she sang. The rest of the Black and Hispanic Caucus of the Board of Alders joined in. ​“Let it from New Haven, I’m gonna let it shine,” she continued.

The rest of the alders standing next to the Amistad memorial clapped and sang with Marks. They did not hold any lights, as members of area fraternities and sororities had done the night before in the same place. Instead, a hot sun beat down on the crowd of about 50.

They were gathered in front of City Hall for the caucus’s annual Juneteenth celebration. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that all slaves must be freed.

A few hours before the event, the city sent out a press release announcing that Mayor Justin Elicker and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers (pictured above) had declared Juneteenth a city holiday. They also urged Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly to recognize it as a state holiday.

Hamden Mayor Curt Leng also officially recognized Juneteenth on Friday.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of people gathered across the street, on the New Haven Green, for a Juneteenth liberation march and teach-in.

Youth Services Department Business Manager Gwendolyn Williams (pictured above) kicked off the alders’ event with a rendition of ​“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly considered the black national anthem. She said she sings with her church, Bethel AME.

After a few brief speeches, Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez handed flowers to the other alders standing in front of the statue. Once they all had flowers, they turned and placed them on the statue, mostly at its base, but some in one of the figure’s hands.

A few minutes later, Walker-Myers stepped up to the podium to speak. This is a celebration, she said, but ​“I don’t want people to go away from the reality.”

“All these years later we are still marching and trying to be noticed,” she said.

Before she had begun to speak, Troy Smith, sitting in an electric wheel chair, rolled in front of the group of alders and stopped, facing the crowd. He held up a poster with rips on its corners that showed the face of city police Officer Dennis O’Connell with the words ​“Wanted for multiple counts of police brutality” printed above his image.

Last week, a group of silent protesters walked from Fair Haven to City Hall to protest police brutality. They stapled the posters to telephone poles as they went. O’Connell has been accused nine times of brutality without serious discipline.

Walker-Myers did not stop talking. She continued as Smith sat on the sidewalk and held the sign.

“We have to start calling out the things that’s not right,” she said. ​“We have to start… changing policies and truly believing that all lives matter. Because if you ask me, being an African American woman, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that when people have to go out there and protest just to say, ​‘Please don’t try us on the streets and kill us.’”

After a minute or so, Smith lowered the poster and rolled away down the sidewalk.

“Let’s celebrate, but let’s celebrate in the right way,” Walker-Myers continued. ​“Let’s challenge our friends. Let’s challenge ourselves when we see something that’s not right.”

Next year, the caucus may have a different statue at which to hold its annual Juneteenth celebration. Jeanette L. Morrison announced that on Sept. 26, the city will unveil a statue of William Lanson, a black entrepreneur who was instrumental in the development of New Haven in the early 19th century, at Scantlebury Park.

Watch a video of the whole event below.