Juneteenth celebration

On Saturday, June 18 the Cass County Juneteenth committee members and vendors started setting up at 8 a.m. Games included volleyball, dominoes, cards, and of course a wet bounce house for the children.

The commemorative runners and walkers, were ready to go at 9 a.m. 1st place winner were Christophe Trahan and 2nd place was his mom Lucy Trahan. There was a tie for 3rd place between best friends, Natalie Gorman and Jan Williams.

Even the seniors were able to make the 2.5-miles in less than an hour. Congratulations to all participants; Patsy Harrison won 1st place in the cake baking contest. Veronica Polendo was the lucky winner of the red and black quilt.

The high noon program was held in the Pleasant Hill Church sanctuary. It started with “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Its commonly referred to as the Negro Anthem, written by James W Johnson over a100 years ago.

Kyndal Neal inspired the audience with a poem called, “Mother to Son” and Savon Northcutt recited “Invictus.”

The Pleasant Hill Quilters gave a brief description of the quilt codes used during the Underground Railroad time. LaWanda Warren rocked the house with a medley of old Negro spirituals,

Thomas Northcutt told how the word got to Galveston, TX about the slaves being free in 1865. Two and a half years late, hence the celebrations began. He talked about how he was in summer school at Tuskegee University in Alabama and no one celebrated Juneteenth. Back then it was just a Texas celebration. Now it’s a federal holiday so it will be celebrated nationally. And the Cass County Juneteenth Committee invites everyone to celebrate again next year.