WB chapter of NAACP serves up early Juneteenth celebration at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park

Juneteenth National Independence Day, known more simply as just Juneteenth, is officially on Wednesday, June 19. But the weekend before is as good a time as any to get the celebration started.

Juneteenth is the most recently recognized federal holiday, and it marks the day in 1865 in which the final slaves in Texas were notified of their emancipation. Since 1866, Juneteenth celebrations have been popular in many African-American communities. In 2021, it was made a federal holiday.

Since that time, the Wilkes-Barre Chapter of the NAACP has built quite the celebration of their own in Northeast Pennsylvania. This year’s was their third Juneteenth cookout in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in Wilkes-Barre.

Daryl Lewis, the event’s organizer and director, said that the event garnered 480 pre-registrations alone. In 2022 and 2023, the event attracted a total of about 600 and 800 guests, respectively.

“It shows me that the community wants to be seen, it wants to be heard, it wants to be felt, and it wants the attention that comes from being a resident,” Lewis said of the overwhelming support for the 2024 iteration of the Juneteenth cookout.

Bill Browne, president of the Wilkes-Barre Chapter of the NAACP, was on hand to oversee the event, and noted that the generous support of other organizations have helped to make the cookout an outstanding draw for the community.

“We’ve got sponsors and grants, so we’re able to serve free food with free drinks,” said Browne. “A lot of free stuff being given out. Free entertainment.”

Lewis said that events like the one held Saturday are only one piece of the bigger goals that he and the NAACP have in mind.

“Even though, yes, we have freedom, we’re still achieving visibility. It’s our honor and our pleasure to create that visibility for the community,” said Lewis, though he acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in this regard.

“We’re going to have to continue to make that effort until the places that we pay taxes, that we live, and the places that we work at, they account for us and they factor us in with their large programming.”

And the goals of the NAACP go beyond community outreach in the social sense. Per Lewis, larger societal shake-ups must occur in order for underserved communities to be “heard” rather than only “seen.”

“The next steps are to pay attention to the community in terms of their housing, their financial development, getting them outside of the rental cycles, making sure their small businesses are being shopped, and that they understand the opportunities that are available to them,” said Lewis.

In the meantime, many in attendance at the cookout took the opportunity to recognize the significant progress that has already been made in terms of social justice.

“Perspective is everything, and I think Juneteenth reminds us that the history of African Americans, as well as this country, should be remembered,” said David Yonki, the first vice president of the Wilkes-Barre NAACP.

Browne offered his own perspective on Juneteenth’s significance, both in terms of Saturday’s event and the day’s larger implications.

“Most people see it as a big party. I see it as a symbol of freedom; a symbol of progress.”

According to Lewis, a Juneteenth party belongs to everyone. He said the Wilkes-Barre NAACP’s events, including the one on Saturday, are meant to be open spaces for the entire local community.

“We always try to stress that our door and our events are open to everybody,” said Lewis. “When we elevate everybody at the bottom, everybody rises.”