◆ New Mexico is celebrating its first statewide Juneteenth online.
Flags across the state began flying at halfstaff at sundown Thursday and will remain so through sundown Saturday under an executive order from the governor.
But one flag will still fly high: a Juneteenth freedom flag.
It was scheduled to be hoisted above the Northern New Mexico College campus in Española early Friday morning and will remain there for a month in commemoration of the emancipation of slaves.
Juneteenth has been recognized in New Mexico as an official state holiday since 2006, but a virtual celebration planned Saturday will be the first statewide observation. In Española, a group also is planning a Friday night Black Lives Matter march in celebration of Juneteenth.
The holiday started June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, when Union soldiers finally brought the news the Civil War had ended 2½ years earlier and slavery had been abolished. Some 250,000 people who remained held in slavery were freed.
“Juneteenth is a celebration of human dignity and freedom, but it’s also a reminder of the dark and irrevocable original sin of this nation, the structural and social effects of which we are sadly still grappling with today,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement Thursday.
The holiday comes this year amid a sharper focus nationwide on lingering racial injustices following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Protesters in New Mexico and across the U.S. have called for reforms to address police brutality, deeply rooted racism and a criminal justice system that disproportionately targets minorities.
The protests since Floyd’s May 25 death have led public officials and police agencies in many states to promise policy changes.
This year’s Juneteenth celebration also comes as the nation continues to wrangle with the public health risks associated with the novel coronavirus.
Because of the pandemic, New Mexico will host its first statewide Juneteenth celebration virtually.
The event will be a “moment of celebration and unity in a time of suffering,” said event organizer Devont’e Kurt Watson. Eight hours of livestreamed music, spoken-word performances and dance are planned.
Watson, 25, cited the importance of art in making sense of upheaval and change. “We have to discuss [this moment] through art to make it digestible through the heart,” he said.
The Juneteenth event, from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, will include a tribute to Floyd.
It will feature performances by recording artist Rosalind Jones and the New Mexico Mass Choir, The Syndicate ABQ , Frederick & Company, Trey Vision and several other musicians.
Watson said he wasn’t concerned that the event would be virtual rather than in person. “Movements are now being cultivated
online, and the whole state is invited,” he said.
Española is taking a different approach to the holiday. Malaya Pexinho, 19, a lead organizer of a Friday evening march in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, said she wants her community to show up.
“I want it to be a time for everyone to be heard,” Pexinho said. “A lot of young people are hurting. People are angry. People are scared. We need to be together and celebrate.”
A longtime Juneteenth activist known as Ms. Willie Williams, who is helping to organize the march, said she believes it will be peaceful.
“If we walk in anger, we won’t get anywhere,” she said. “We are walking in celebration, in love, in peace.”
The nationwide Black Lives Matter movement is like none she has seen before, Williams said, and it feels like movement forward.
The march is a first step in calling for community dialogue, Williams said, adding, “Juneteenth is a freedom day for everyone.”