Black History For Toddlers

Juneteenth rodeo in Elizabeth celebrates black history

ELIZABETH — Elizabeth celebrated a milestone in African-American history this weekend with a Juneteenth rodeo, street fair and parade.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas, to tell the locals the Civil War was over and slaves were now free — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

In addition to the rodeo on Murray Street, which featured professional and amateur bull-riding and children sheep-riding, the events in Elizabeth featured members of the Federation of Black Cowboys — a group of cowboys trying to pass on horsemanship skills to New York’s inner-city youth.

The name "cowboy" was originally given to slaves who looked after cattle, federation members say. But very few people know that; federation members try to teach kids history alongside horsemanship, they said.

"We got our name from chasing cows," said Jessie Lee Wise, one of the federation’s founders, smoking a cigar in a black federation shirt, jeans, hat and cowboy boots. "It’s part of my history."

"The history and the legacy of the black cowboy should never die," added Willie Dunne, another federation founder, "We can’t look back, because that’s gone. You have to constantly feel good about progress."

The goal of the Juneteenth celebrations is to teach the next generation about the battles won in the past — and those still being fought, said Kim Nesbitt-Good, a co-chairwoman of the Elizabeth Juneteenth Committee, which sponsored the weekend’s events.

"We need to know that although we’re talking about something that happened in 1865, we’re still struggling," she said. "It’s very important for us to make sure our children understand what Juneteenth is all about."

Such history lessons are not given in schools today, said Colton Tucker, Jr., 81, a longtime Elizabeth resident. Tucker said he traveled from Elizabeth to Washington, D.C., in 1963 for the March on Washington.

"It was a beautiful thing," he said. "I saw walls and walls of people, black and white."

The celebrations continue Sunday with a parade at 2 p.m. that travels up Elizabeth Avenue to Broad Street and ends at City Hall.

What You Don't Have, You Don't Miss « Black Diamond History

As a child growing up during the depression in the town of Black Diamond, I found it to be both an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

It showed how people in a small community with meager means could work and pull together and still provide their children with various types of entertainment plus teaching responsibility. We had values as guidelines and were taught respect by our parents and other adults.

Through our parents’ community club the kids were offered two free movies a week, a big Christmas celebration with children up to the age of 14 receiving gifts plus a sack containing peanuts, a box of candy plus an apple and orange. The older teens hung around until the end of the program to pick up a sack of goodies.

Kids had to be resourceful in what they did. They didn’t sit around complaining life was boring and they didn’t have anything to do. What the community didn’t provide, kids provided themselves.

In one major project, we cleared off a lot that was full of raspberry bushes and leveled the ground with shovels, hoes, and pick-axes. We went into the woods, cut down two alder trees and used them for posts to support the backboards, which we made. We used barrel staves for our hoops. We were able to get an old leather basketball from our local school district which served the purpose.

Another major project was to develop a miniature nine-hole putting golf course. We made our golf clubs from branches and took pride in whittling them to perfection. We were constantly manicuring the course as well as trying to make it more difficult, but yet more playable. We were very competitive and were always striving to set new course records.

The center for most of our activities was the ball park which was located in the middle of town. We didn’t have a structured program of athletics like kids today, we organized our own games.

We also learned to play horseshoes from the men of our community. There were two horseshoe pits located behind the ball park grandstand which were kept under constant maintenance. The men were kind enough to allow teenagers to play with them and to learn the game.

Other activities we were involved in were school sports and school activities, birthday parties, the boy scouts, bike rides, hiking, etc.

During the evenings many of the boys would congregate at Davies’ Confectionary store where we enjoyed the camaraderie of one another.

During the summer months we worked in the Green River valley near Auburn picking peas or beans or we would hoe vegetables. We also picked little wild blackberries for our homes and to sell for spending money. We did a lot of swimming at our local Lake 12 Resort. Most summer evenings were spent on our miniature golf course or we walked around town talking to the gals or to one another. Saturday evenings were show nights for the kids.

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