Fayette’s 25th annual Juneteenth celebration began last night with a lecture about the Iron Riders, a group of Black U.S. Army soldiers who rode 1,900+ miles on bikes from Montana to Missouri in the 1890s.
This is just the first event of many for Fayette this weekend. There will be a banquet tonight celebrating the 25-year milestone, as well as a Gospel Fest Friday evening.
Tim Jackman has been one of the organizers of the event since it began in 2000, and said the goal is to build and sustain community.
“Over the years, we've sort of felt like because one of our goals was we wanted to make it bigger and better, and so, we knew by doing that, we needed to get more community folks involved,” Jackman said. “And actually that just happened within the last few years, and I think that's definitely brought out more people, more support for the event.”
Most of the celebration will be held on Saturday, beginning with a community-wide breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and a parade through town at 9 a.m. There will also be a children’s poster contest, a car show, a fireworks show in the evening and more.
Stevie Gilpin is another member of the organizing committee, and said all of the events are about bringing people together and giving back to the community, while also teaching them about the past.
“The word unity is so important, and to continue to discuss history so thataway history doesn't repeat itself,” Gilpin said, “We have to continue to learn and how to collaborate, you know, all of our differences, and just live with humanity, it is so important, especially right now.”
The weekend will end with community worship on Sunday, as well as a ribs cook off.
Both Jackman and Gilpin said they hope that lots of folks from throughout mid-Missouri attend the weekend’s celebrations.
“Let's just celebrate everybody because to me, it’s no different than when you look at the fourth of July. Okay, that's Independence Day, right? And that's celebrated by everybody. Why shouldn't Juneteenth be celebrated by everybody?” Jackman said.
Jackman says he doesn’t want the community to see the celebration as just for Black residents, but instead for everyone to champion the events that led to the end of slavery.
