Are you joining a protest or march to mark Juneteenth? Read our guide to protesting safely during a pandemic first, and read more on the meaning and history of Juneteenth here.
This post will be updated throughout the day. Check back for updates.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the Bay Area, and events everywhere announced their inevitable cancellation, the idea of June 19, 2020 passing without any major in-person gatherings to mark Juneteenth seemed to be a real possibility.
But this Juneteenth now falls after weeks of ongoing protests nationwide against the killing of Black people, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade â a movement which has seen direct action in support of Black lives continue night after night around the Bay Area. And while several of the major scheduled festivals aren’t happening this year, there’ll be protests, celebrations and commemorations taking place with a fresh urgency around the Bay Area today and into the weekend.
In Oakland today, workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are enacting a planned shutdown of the Port of Oakland â along with all ports along the West Coast â to honor Juneteenth: the date which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.
An aerial view of container ships docked at the Port of Oakland on March 6, 2019. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
This Juneteenth work stop represents the latest in a long line of protests enacted by the ILWU, from anti-apartheid shutdowns to action taken against the Iraq war in 2008. âWith the ILWUâs history of advocating for the end of police terror and violence we decided to put a call out,â said Trent Willis, president of the ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco.
A car caravan is assembling this morning at the Port of Oakland in solidarity, accompanied by a scheduled march to Oscar Grant Plaza where speeches from Angela Davis, Boots Riley and Danny Glover have been announced. Check back here later for more.
Around the Bay Area, people have been preparing to mark and celebrate Juneteenth with direct action.
They include the teenage members of Black Youth for the Peopleâs Liberation, the group which worked to organize the June 8 East Oakland march in protest of the killing of Oakland man Erik Salgado by California Highway Patrol officers. The collective is holding a Juneteenth event at DeFremery Park in West Oakland this afternoon.
Bay Area teenagers with the newly-formed group Black Youth for the Peopleâs Liberation prepping signs for the Juneteenth rally and march they organized for Friday afternoon at DeFremery Park in West Oakland. (Vanessa Rancaño/KQED)
Yesterday, one of their founders, 17-year-old Isha Clarke, gathered her fellow activists in the park to make signs for the event, where she and others will be speaking before leading a march through West Oakland. All wore masks, to limit the potential to spread COVID-19.
“I was like, we need to do a Black youth led protest on Juneteenth,” said Clarke. “This is definitely a time to reclaim that holiday and to acknowledge that this is our Independence Day, itâs not the 4th of July.”
“We’re celebrating all of our ancestors and the people that came before us, who fought since the day they were kidnapped,” Clarke said. “And also acknowledging that we have so much more to do.”
Copyright 2020 KQED