by Jeroslyn JoVonn
June 24, 2025
Mitchelville Freedom Park’s Juneteenth sleepover invited a various group to immerse themselves within the nation’s first self-governing city of previously enslaved individuals.
The Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park in South Carolina, hosted a Juneteenth sleepover that allowed a multigenerational group to immerse themselves within the website of the primary self-governing city of previously enslaved individuals within the nation.
Held on June 12, every week earlier than Juneteenth, the occasion, led by park employees, invited visitors to camp within the woods and mirror on what life might have been like throughout slavery, The Washington Put up studies.
Actions included connecting with the pure environment, viewing the darkish, salty waters of Port Royal Sound—the place a duplicate boat represented the vessels as soon as utilized by locals to succeed in a fort fabricated from oyster shells—and visiting the silhouette of a reward home.
A spotlight was listening to a reenactment of a Baptist minister studying the Emancipation Proclamation, as as soon as occurred on these very shores. Ahmad Ward, govt director of Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, led the group in listening to a recorded interview with Mom Ethel Rivers, a centenarian born in Mitchelville. Talking in a lilting West African cadence, she described a Gullah Geechee ceremony of passage referred to as “looking for,” the place girls and boys spent the evening open air to attach with their ancestors, and, at instances, to come across the divine.
The occasion’s intimate format contrasts sharply with the grand scale of Nationwide Mall museums or public college methods, which have come below hearth from the Trump administration for educating what it deems “racially divisive” content material.
Stored alive by donations and state funding, Mitchelville displays a rising curiosity in historic websites tied to slavery, just like close by Charleston, South Carolina, the place extra guests are looking for out plantation museums for deeper perception into slavery’s legacy and a significant connection to their ancestors.
“After I see there are efforts to maintain us from our historical past, I see there are different methods and different means,” stated Deborah Douglas, an writer who’s engaged on the second version of a traveler’s information to the Civil Rights Path.
“We’re solely speaking about it in our group,” stated Cheria Hay, a speech language pathologist and seventh-generation Mitchelville descendant, who drove six hours from her residence in North Carolina to attend the Juneteenth campout. “It needs to be shared.”
Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park hosts its Juneteenth festivities every year, and registration continues to develop. Various teams participate in actions such because the in a single day campout, nature talks, a household day, a drum circle and live performance, a karaoke contest, and a enjoyable run.
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