After a group of self-identified white supremacists showed up at a Pride celebration last weekend in downtown Centralia, city officials spoke out during the Centralia City Council meeting Tuesday night with concerns about the group’s presence.
They also shared concerns about safety at this Saturday’s Juneteenth celebration at George Washington Park, just a block away from where the Pride celebration was held.
Juneteenth celebration organizers Usha Sahadeva-Brooks and Jim McCully spoke to the council during the meeting to share their own concerns.
Sahadeva-Brooks said she attended the Pride celebration in a booth for Multiculturally Minded Lewis County and was scared when she realized white supremacists had arrived.
“For those who say that there is no white supremacy here in Lewis County, there is a lot. Walk in my shoes and I’ll show you what I’ve had to put up with for the past three years,” Sahadeva-Brooks said.
She implored everyone to honor the founder of Centralia for whom the park where the Juneteenth celebration will be held is named, George Washington.
“The founder of this city is the son of a slave, and nobody seems to know this history or they don’t wish to educate themselves on it. The way I feel, education doesn’t cost you anything,” Sahadeva-Brooks said, adding, “If you don’t know this information it’s because you choose not to know the information. You choose not to talk to me to find out how I am feeling.”
McCully thanked the city council, the mayor and Centralia residents for their response to the Pride celebration protest and for recognizing the Juneteenth holiday, then reminded them of the long-standing racial tensions that persist in the area.
“This is one thing that’s been going on. The racial situation has been a very tough one and I was gonna remind every one of you the fear that you felt that day during the Pride celebration, keep that close to your heart because that’s what people of color feel every day,” McCully said.
Despite the risk of more protests, he urged everyone to come out to the Juneteenth celebration in order to help educate the public.
“It’s not just for one group of people. It’s for everyone. So please come,” McCully said.
Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston read a proclamation officially declaring June 19 as Juneteenth in Centralia and shared an abridged version of Washington’s story in which he faced and peacefully overcame racial prejudice throughout his life.
Some of those events included agreeing to leave the church he founded when new members refused to have him in the congregation and refusing to identify any possible suspects in an attempt on his life when he was poisoned. To read more about Washington, visit https://tinyurl.com/dsfc4v6a.
Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War when Union soldiers enforced President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and freed the remaining slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
While June 19 will officially be Juneteenth in Centralia, the celebration will be held on Saturday, June 17, to give as many people as possible the chance to attend, according to a news release from the city last month.
Set to go from 10 a.m. to noon, the celebration will be held at George Washington Park, located at 110 S. Silver St. in Centralia. Should it be raining during the event, speakers will move inside the Centralia Timberland Library.
For more information, contact Multiculturally Minded Lewis County on its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/multiculturallymindedlc/.
