Black leadership, community support center of Juneteenth celebration

For 161 years, African Americans have celebrated their freedom.

From the end of slavery in 1865, through the segregation era during the 1900s, to seeing Black leaders thrive in the 2000s, the tapestry of Black history in America carries on from June 19, 1865, the day when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger showed up in Galveston Texas and enforced an order to free all slaves.

Black freedom has been celebrated every June 19 since then - first as "Emancipation Day" by Texas freedmen, and now as Juneteenth, in its sixth year as a national federal holiday. The Springfield community carried that spirit all Juneteenth weekend.

"This is a Black celebration, it's a Black thing, but the fact that other people who are not Black feel welcome, I think that moves our country forward," said Rev. Tracey Wolff, a member of the NAACP executive leadership team and lead pastor at Grace United Methodist Church. "It's up to us as the people to keep moving things forward."

The festivities began 7 p.m. Thursday night, June 18 at Moxie Cinema with a viewing of the Marvel film Black Panther starring the late Chadwick Boseman and filmed with a nearly full Black cast. The multi award-winning movie was followed by music, with Miami-based rapper Trina headlining the Springfield Juneteenth Concert at The Riff on Friday.

Saturday afternoon, more than 50 tables representing different businesses were present at the Juneteenth Community Celebration held at the Expo Center, followed by Mosaic in the Park, an art, music, and culture event, at Silver Springs Park Pavilion to cap off Juneteenth weekend.

The city of Springfield partnered with the NAACP to set up the Juneteenth Community Celebration. Another partner of the NAACP is the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Founded on Dec. 4, 1906, at New York's Cornell University, Alpha Phi Alpha became the first Black Greek letter organization created in America. There are now more than 1,000 Black fraternities across the country all with the same mission: pushing youth forward.

"Some of our local initiatives really involve mentoring, because that's what's important for us, giving back," said Jimmie Sims, president of the Sigma Nu Lambda Chapter under Alpha Phi Alpha. "We want young people to see something different than what they see on social media, because that's not everyday life. Supporting the youth who march onward and upward is really what we're about."

Kimberly Chaney started Simple Pleasures, a small, multi-generational business that is "basically anything that brings you happiness." She, alongside Sheila Carter and Ayricka Pointer, make all the products themselves by hand, from jewelry to candles to scrunchies.

Chaney's son aspires to open his own lemonade business one day. Knowing that his goals stems from her own career aspirations is something in which she takes great pride.

"It's very important to have Black leaders and people who have Black-owned businesses," Chaney said. "It's important to have all of that because of the fact that we need to be able to show the future generations that anything's possible. You can do and be whoever you want to be."

The African American community has more support than it ever has had before, Wolff said, and while the world is far from perfect, strength and togetherness are an antidote to adversity.

"Every time somebody tries to pull it backwards, more and more people come together to fight," she said. "I don't want anybody losing heart because things feel like they're difficult. There's no reason to lose heart. We got far more power than we ever had in 1861, so if they could do it, then we got to do it, too."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Black leadership, community support center of Juneteenth celebration

Reporting by Chris Meglio, Springfield News-Leader / Springfield News-Leader

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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 3:46 AM.