La Mesa hopes Juneteenth celebration can help heal wounds from riot
City leaders said bringing together residents to mark an oft-forgotten moment in history could help neighbors find common ground
BY BLAKE NELSON JUNE 17, 2022 11:45 AM PT
You’ve got options to mark Juneteenth in San Diego County.
There’s a bike ride and movie screenings on Saturday. A 5K launches Sunday while county offices close Monday.
But a first-of-its-kind celebration this weekend in La Mesa promises to be especially significant, coming just two years after the East County city was rocked by violent protests following George Floyd’s murder.
“On the heels of the tumultuous conflict year La Mesa has had racially, we wanted to make it a point to make this a community event, as much as it is a Juneteenth celebration,” Kim Vinyard, the event coordinator, said in an interview.
Two banks and a historic building burned in 2020. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and one officer lost his job after a contentious arrest.
Organizers and city leaders agreed that bringing together a broad swath of people to mark an oft-forgotten moment in history could help neighbors find common ground.
“I think every event should be inclusive and should heal, not only in La Mesa, but our entire nation,” Mayor Mark Arapostathis said in an interview.
The Civil War had been over for months on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers finally reached Galveston, Texas to tell the last group of enslaved Black American they were free. While that moment has long been celebrated by some citizens, it only became a federal holiday last year.
La Mesa’s mayor said his history classes growing up left Juneteenth out, and Vinyard, who is Black and grew up in Santee, said she’d only heard of it a few years ago.
La Mesa needs this, especially after the protests, said Allan Durden, one of the main organizers and a member of the city’s Community Relations and Veterans Commission.
“We wanted to show the city, the county, the state that La Mesa is not that kind of city,” Durden said in an interview. “We wanted to show that La Mesa is a diverse city, and that we support all cultures.”
Starting noon Sunday in MacArthur Park, residents should get the full gamut of local food, live music and art. There will be a bounce house for kids and an SDSU professor speaking on emancipation. The San Diego Martin Luther King Choir is scheduled to perform, as is the step team from Mount Miguel High School.
“This is gonna be huge for all of us,” Police Chief Ray Sweeney said in an interview.
Sweeney took over last year, after his predecessor stepped down the same summer as the protests.
The chief said attending Sunday will not only allow him to connect with residents, but might help recruit new officers.
Planning for the event began about a year ago, after a pandemic delay.
Local officials are promoting it, although the event isn’t overseen by the city. Durden and other small donors are covering much of the cost, estimated to be around $6,000, and leaders are relying on about 30 volunteers, including students from nearby Helix and Grossmont high schools.
Organizers from the “La Mesa Juneteenth and Friends” commitee hope Sunday will start a new tradition.
One question that remains: How many will show up?
“I’m a little afraid actually, as an event planner, that we have way more people than we expect,” Vinyard said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report