Community holds ‘solidarity march’
NAACP’s Ambler branch president reflects on event’s success in honor of ‘Juneteenth’
People showed up in droves last Friday evening to participate in a demonstration celebrating Juneteenth in downtown Lansdale.
“It was a march of solidarity,” said Shaykh Anwar Muhammad, president of Ambler branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The march began around 5 p.m. at Lansdale Borough Hall on 1 Vine St. Demonstrators of all ages headed down Main Street before circling back to the Borough Hall, according to Muhammad.
“I mean it was beautiful to see.
It was amazing how many people showed up,” he said.
The evening was complete with speeches from a number of area dignitaries including Donald Lyons, vice president of the NAACP’s Ambler branch, Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert and Lansdale Police Chief Mike Trail.
Lyons offered some historical context of the origins behind Juneteenth.
The historic day marked the end of slavery, more than two
years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, according to the National Registry of Juneteenth Organizations and Supporters. Union Major General Gordon Granger and his soldiers reached Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 informing those there that the “war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.”
Herbert, and Ambler Mayor Jeanne Sorg, also issued proclamations in their respective towns recognizing Juneteenth, Muhammad said.
While Muhammad emphasized the importance of Juneteenth, the community leader said he wanted to use the event’s platform to continue ongoing national conversations surrounding racism and police relations in the weeks following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
The incident sparked outrage and unrest across the nation, with protests popping up in major cities, including Philadelphia. In Montgomery County, several peaceful demonstrations occurred in Norristown, Ambler and Lansdale.
Muhammad said the Ambler branch of the NAACP covers areas in North Penn, Upper Dublin and Wissahickon school districts. He added that his organization has worked with the municipal leaders and police chiefs on cultivating positive community relationships for months.
“There’s already been a rapport and a bridge being created from the community to law enforcement,” he said.
As an entrepreneur, Muhammad has been doing his part for years to create initiatives and have meaningful conversations with patrons at his shop, The Black Reserve Bookstore, located on West Main Street in downtown Lansdale.
He touted the borough’s diversity and said he has high hopes for the town to be an example for other places to follow.
“Lansdale has the ability to be that ... change that we wish to see in the nation, and be the template of that change,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad added that he appreciates the local public participation as calls for change are echoed nationwide.
“I think people in this town see the need for what’s going on right now. Obviously, because they’re participating and participating in alarming rates,” Muhammad said. “So this really has nothing to do with color. This is really not a color issue, it’s really a right and wrong issue.”
“It’s not a color issue. The things that are happening nationally are because they’re a right and wrong issue,” he continued. “So I think people are witnessing that, and understanding that, and that’s why the response is so great right because people are saying, ‘well this really has nothing to do with color, and everything to do with morals, and right and wrong.’”