Wallingford Celebrates Juneteenth
It was an honor to work with the Wallingford Democrats to organize our town’s first ever Juneteenth celebration. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this event happen, especially our guest speakers, Councilwoman Sonya Jelks and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.
By Faith Williams
WALLINGFORD — Meriden City Councilor Majority Leader Sonya Jelks applauded Wallingford and Meriden for holding their first annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday while also looking forward to future changes.
“It means so much that this country is finally acknowledging its history, its true history,” Jelks said. “We hope that we can use this moment, use this day, to continue to educate and work on irradicating racism and discrimination that has plagued this country since its inception.”
The Wallingford Democratic Town Committee collaborated with the Meriden-Wallingford NAACP for the celebration Saturday at Johana Manfreda Fishbein Park. From noon to 2 p.m., residents enjoyed music, speeches and refreshments including juice and cupcakes from Cupcakeitis, a Black-owned bakery business in Hamden.
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating when Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX on June 19, 1865 to enforce the emancipation of over 250,000 enslaved African Americans.
This came three years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. Texas was the last state of the Confederacy to have slavery abolished.
John Connelly, a Wallingford resident and history teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall, attended the event on Saturday. He has been researching the history of Wallingford and contributing to Wallingford’s “Black Stories Matter” project since fall 2020.
“This is terrific, I think the timing is perfect,” Connelly said. “I think its one step in bringing an unknown chapter out into the open.”
Music by famous Black jazz artists like Etta James, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday played in the background and Sherri Wheeler, a Meriden resident, sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black National Anthem, to kick the celebration off.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro also attended the event. DeLauro said she was so proud to be in the position to vote in favor of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday.
“It really is a moment and I think a transformative moment in the history of this country.” DeLauro said. “It is indicative that we understand what has gone on in our society. There is no going back to normal, our role is to be able to go forward.”
The event ended with the reading of a list of enslaved African Americans found in Wallingford’s records in the 1700s. This list was compiled by Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust and is part of the “Black Stories Matter” project.
A bill designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday was signed into law by President Biden.
