Come 5 p.m., as spurts from flying water balloons erupted on the lawn, Frank Moppins would be on its edge, at a booth crowded with lawn chairs.
Much of his family lounged there as they talked. Some, like his sister, Velma Ross, staffed the booth, selling sports drinks next to T-shirts bearing the name of the event they were volunteering at: Black Family Day, the city’s oldest running cultural tradition.
Framed by the Delta waterfront, hundreds of families like the Moppins showed up for the weekend-long event, established in 1969 as a way for Black families to come together. Always held on Labor Day, Moppins said the event used to signal the end of summer, at least when the kids returned to school back in September.
And while surrounded by family, it’d be the first Black Family Day Moppins and Ross would be without their mother, who had died at 100 earlier this year.
Every year, she’d wait on the porch, Moppins recalled, “up and ready to go” in her 49-ers gear when he arrived. She’d sell peach cobbler and sweet potato pies, too, Moppins fondly remembered.
But most of the time, she’d sit around, much like they were doing today, Moppins said, to “enjoy time with family.”
That day, Ross remembered another family member she was without — her sister, Lavenna Moppins Gray, who had until 2006 served as the nonprofit’s president. Ross had first come to family day to “have a good time,” but eventually, her sister brought her in as a volunteer.
Because of their longtime involvement, the siblings have seen the gathering grow — from a baseball game at McKinley Park in its early years, to a picnic facing the city’s downtown Civic Auditorium, to its current home at Weber Point.
For Ross, it’ll always be a “family thing,” one where “everybody, all over in Stockton” gathers.
It’s the same for Anthony Grigsby, who saw his 95-year-old great uncle come out.
“These events are like family reunions,” said Grigsby, the nonprofit’s board president. “You run into people in the community that you either haven’t seen for years or you always see once or twice a year. You know, it’s just a family affair.”
Since his first family day, Grigsby has seen the event as a place to sit out all day, where his family would pack up, pick a spot on the lawn and bring some barbecue.
But beside it being a place to hangout, Black Family Day is also a celebratory result of students’ push against segregation in Stockton, he said.
According to Grigsby, the annual event came about after Delta College students from the Black Student Union and MEChA, or the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, protested the University of the Pacific’s refusal to allow Black students to attend.
“It was a battle,” said Anthony’s mother, Tonie Thurman Grigsby, one of the student protestors. “A very racist time.”
By the time Thurman Grigsby was 21 (protests had started when she was in high school), UOP eventually relented, allowing Black students to attend through the then established Community Involvement Program. It continues today, but as a scholarship for first-generation students, where the family day nonprofit partners with UOP to provide $1,000 scholarships for around 20 high school students every year, Grigsby said.
Thurman Grigsby, along with two of her brothers, would be part of the program’s inaugural class. And eventually, she’d be one of the Stockton Unified School District’s first Black teachers.
“Being a resident of Stockton, I take great pride in trying to carry on the legacy of that program. And that means getting out there and showing that the program exists, and opening up doors for students in our community.
‘Have the youth be the ones organizing, too’
By 7 p.m., Edison High students Eva Mitchell and Josiah Henderson Washington had started to pick up the discarded bottles and cans left from guests on the lawn.
Volunteering as part of their school’s Black Student Union, they had come to know the event in different ways. Henderson Washington had gone to Black Family Day when he was younger, looking forward especially to the food, including gumbo from a stand he didn’t see this year. Mitchell had moved to Stockton in 2021 and had learned about the event from those at her school.
But a musical set had the two questioning whether Black Family Day was keeping up with their generation.
During the afternoon setlist, R&B and hip hop artist Brittney Jones, known as @blovejones, was asked by organizers to leave the stage after uttering the N-word during her performance. Jones, who is Black, said it was “disrespectful” after one organizer had attempted to take the mic from her.
While Mitchell and Henderson Washington still grooved to the music throughout the event, they said much of it was catered for the older generation. And seeing what happened to Jones, it was like she was “restricted,” said Mitchell. For Henderson Washington, it was like organizers were “trying to suppress the culture itself.”
“If you push the youth out too much, then they’re not gonna want to contribute,” Mitchell said. “If they would play some of the more younger music that is today, I feel like the younger people would have more of a good time.”
Several longtime organizers, volunteers and attendees said they hope the event will continue for years to come. For that to happen, Grigsby said, new people will need to come along, as some board members have spent over 30 with the organization.
“That’s their dedication to this organization and community,” he said. “It’s time that they need a break. We need more people to come on board and really take the reins.”
It’s a change that Henderson Washington wants to see.
“Have the youth be the ones organizing, too,” added Henderson Washington. “That way, they’ll have more insight on the kind of things we’re interested in.”