Juneteenth celebrates freedom, commemorates end of slavery

BARSTOW — Every once in a while, Bobbie Goodlow tears up remembering her sister, the late Clara Jefferson, a local black leader who passed away last year.

“A little water gets in my eye,” Goodlow said. “I think about her.”

It was later in their lives when Goodlow got to know Jefferson, who moved from their Texas home to Barstow at the age of 17 and wasn’t around in Goodlow’s youth.

When Goodlow came to Barstow, though, Jefferson gave her a place to stay.

“She’s been there for me all these years,” said Goodlow, who went on to get her own home in Barstow but visited her sister regularly.

“Every day my spot was right there at my sister’s house,” she said. Goodlow said she was “just devoted to my sister.”

She gets lonely without Jefferson, but Goodlow was among friends, family and community on Saturday at Barstow’s sixth annual Juneteenth celebration in Sturnacle Park. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery. Jefferson brought the event to Barstow after a conversation with Annie Jo Shropshire, another black community leader, inspired the idea.

“I’m just happy, y’know, that they carry on,” said Goodlow, who sat in a chair under the shade of the park’s trees, a spot where many people stopped to greet her. All she had to do was sit there, she said, and people came to kiss her on the cheek. They tell her she looks like her sister, she said.

Jefferson’s granddaughter Chaunte Harper, 16, also attended the celebration, which she said honored “the slaves who found out way later,” referring to the Texas slaves who learned of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after it took effect.

Lucille West-Brooks, Shropshire’s sister, said she sees a resurgence in black pride and interest in black history reflected in Juneteenth, which attracts more celebrants each year. Florida Richardsen and Tom Evans, early black business owners in Barstow, were honored at the

celebration. Zaneta Conner said it’s important to pay tribute to people such as Richardsen and Evans. Each year, Conner said, she brings her children to the Juneteenth event right down the street from her childhood home to remind them of the need to remember those who “paved the way” for them.

Empriss Gardner, 12, said Juneteenth is valuable for both its historical significance and its social aspect.

“I like it,” she said. “It’s like a time to come out and talk to family and friends.”

Mary L. Hailey, the president of the Art and Industrial Women’s Club, said she’s grateful to see a lot of people involved.

“We do this to have fun with everyone,” she said. “We can enjoy each other and break bread, so to speak.”

To West-Brooks, “getting together and having a good time” is itself something to celebrate as it was a freedom denied to slaves. The location is significant, too, West-Brooks said. People have suggested moving it from the small park near Riverside Drive, she said, but Sturnacle is more accessible to some of the older people who might have trouble getting across town.

“This is the neighborhood,” she said.

“This is where Clara wanted it to be.”