As “Sumthin’ Sumthin'” by Maxwell blared across the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Dana Beckton fell into a random dance with a stranger.
“This is what I’m talking about! That’s joy,” said a beaming Beckton before Angela Bernard drew her into a dance at the county’s annual Juneteenth festival.
In that moment, as their hands interlocked, the two felt as close as sisters, Beckton said.
“Often, we live in spaces where we’ve got to monitor ourselves, where we’ve got to kind of sublimate who we are,” said Beckton. “Spaces like this allow us to be free.”
Since last weekend, thousands have descended on Juneteenth celebrations across the county to commemorate the country’s end of slavery. Annually celebrated on June 19, the holiday marks when still enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were free more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
For at least 50 years, generations of Stocktonians have come together long before Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
Gloria Johnson remembers some of those first celebrations, where residents for decades gathered near the city’s cool downtown waterfront. Events like these, she said, preserve Black history, one she stressed younger generations need to understand.
“It’s important to keep it going,” said Johnson, who is 83 years old. “It keeps the stories alive, keeps the culture alive.”
Later, 10 year old D’Ari Graves took the stage to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a poem written by civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900 that today many recognize as the “Black National Anthem.”
In those seconds that Graves sang, attendees grew quiet, some pulling out their phones before they let out their cheers and applause.
Having practiced the hymn for weeks, performing felt powerful, Graves said.
“I know I can do this,” she recalled telling herself before she went on stage. “This is for my community, my ancestors.”
Ariyan Miller had encouraged Graves, her daughter, to take part in the city’s annual commemoration. Not only would the experience strengthen her daughter’s sense of self, it also embodied generations of ancestral dreams, Miller said.
“I want to make sure that she values who she is — values the color of her skin, values her ancestors, values her work ethic,” Miller said. “Not only is she my wildest dreams, she’s also my ancestors’ wildest dreams. All the pain that they went through? None of that was in vain.”
The night before, Graves performed the same anthem at a gala hosted by the San Joaquin Juneteenth Foundation, which also organized the festival. The gala honored at least 18 organizations and leaders whose decades of work has helped move Black Stockton forward, said Danelle Shelton, the foundation’s president.
At the Friday event, former Mayor of Tracy Nancy Young was among those recognized. In 2020, Young had become the city’s first elected woman and African-American mayor.
Right before she accepted the certificate, Young shared a clip of herself on Instagram standing inside the Tracy City Hall lobby — now named in her honor.
Most recently Young, who served a four-year term as mayor, added another chapter to that legacy when she ran in this year’s gubernatorial primary election.
Despite how much the recent honors mean to her, Young said she hopes it helps others feel unconstrained in what they can achieve.
“This honor is about being one of many that are out here trying to break as many ceilings, break down as many barriers as I can to bring others alongside me … It’s not just about me being out in front,” Young said. “No, ‘Look at what you can do.'”
Throughout the gala, Nicole Tobias Cooks, took to guiding the chefs for the event — at least a dozen youths from the foundation’s free cultural and arts camp who prepared a feast of black-eyed pea hummus, a South African chutney and a summer pasta goulash
For Cooks, a culinary chef by trade, Juneteenth has always been something she grew up with, where celebrations at local parks were often organized by churches on a Saturday.
Today, she considers herself an elder, taking up the mantle of her father’s legacy following his death last week. But her teachings to youth don’t reflect in the stories she tells.
“I’m teaching them through personality, and it reflects in (the) food.” she said. “That’s what I can pass down to them. I don’t have to give them a story … I just have to lead by example.”