2024 LAFAYETTE COUNTY JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION EVENTS

2024 Lafayette County Juneteenth “A LONG TIME COMING”

Friday, June 14, 2024       Higginsville Community Building at Fairground Park

Everyone is welcome!

8:30 am  Flag Raising – Boy Scout Troop #415 Troop, National Anthem to be sung in unison. Special guests are summer school students from Lafayette County, MO.

9 am- 10:50 am  Juneteenth Presents (Our New Program)

Our special guests who are from the area district summer school sessions have the opportunity to rotate through four educational presentations to further their knowledge and understanding of the importance of Juneteenth. They will hear from four dynamic speakers. Our morning speakers are Ray Anthony Shepard, Reverend Mary Williams, Chris Fritsche, and Dr. Joahn Hall.  Our dynamic afternoon speakers are Carol Hannon and Ray Sutherland.

9 am Meet & Greet- Special time for introducing, sharing, and caring!  

“People fear each other because they don’t know each other. They don’t know each other because they’ve not been properly introduced.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sheila Lee as "Miss Ann"

Invitees: Visit From Sheila Lee “Miss Ann Williams” enactor of Lexington, MO, proclamations, mayors, county officials, historic sites mangers, business owners, clubs, chambers of commerce, and those who are new to our community.

Douglass School Renovation Project – Higginsville, MO Travis Benton, Judy Linquist

History of Dover, MO and Waverly, MO and other settlements – Invited guests

Sunshine Social & Art Club’s  - Sam Duncan Scholarship Fund Efforts- Reverend Evelyn Elmore

Special music

Vendors - Judi Knipmeyer, Le’Andrea Hannon-Lewis, Lawanna Nichols, Connie Powell

12:30 pm: Lafayette County People of Note - Carol Hannon - Afternoon with Lafayette County C-1 Summer School students

2:30 pm Voter Education – Jessica White – County Clerk Elect

4:30 pm Break/ Set up dinner

5:30 pm - 6:30  WELCOME DINNER (Pot of Luck)

This is one of our annual traditions used as a way to welcome our guest speaker and new and old friends who celebrate Juneteenth. The Foundation provides the meats (fried chicken, baked chicken, ham), drinks, and bread. We ask that you bring your favorite side dish and dessert.

6:45 pm Evening Program

Invocation - Reverend Dale Felder

Welcome – Master of Ceremonies - Reverend Brandon Lewis

Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” - Carol Hannon

The song was a hymn written as poem by NAACP leader, James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938) in 1900. It was set to music by his brother, J. Rosamund (1873-1954).

Special Music -Emerson Rankin and Elaina Rankin

Elaina Rankin and Emerson Rankin

Emerson graduated from St Paul Lutheran High School May 17 and plans to attend the University of Iowa majoring in Organ and Spanish. She has played the piano since she was 7 and started playing cello at age 10. She has also played the flute and started organ lessons 2 years ago when the Concordia Music Conservatory was started. She was part of the Singing Saints all 4 years of high school and enjoyed choir tours. She just recently got back from a 10-day trip to Spain with some of her classmates and her Spanish teacher.

Elaina will be a sophomore next year at St Paul. She also has been playing the piano since she was 7 and the flute since 5th grade. She loves to sing and was able to take voice lessons this past year with the Concordia Music Conservatory. She also started organ lessons. Elaina went to state music contest with two small singing groups and they both received a superior rating.  They are the daughters of Allison and Matt Rankin.

Special acknowledgments

Langston Hughes

Freedom’s Plow - Reader’s Theatre — The Spoken Word of author, Langston Hughes(1902-1967). This will be a diverse group of volunteer readers that reflects the richness of America. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, MO.  He was a writer of novels, poetry, and the newspaper.  

Freedom's Plow is one of Hughes' poems. The poem has been described as a "hymn and a rallying cry for freedom."  The group of readers includes Reverend Dale Felder, Doris Graham, Julia Hunter, Sheila Lee, Donna Owens, Linda Smith, Cindy Sause, Charlene Trout, and director, Reverend Liz Linsey.

There is an interesting relationship that the poem has with our town.  A group of high school students from Lafayette County C-1 first performed it in 1971. Donna Owens and Linda Smith were part of that theater group. Donna Owens was asked to share her reflections from the 1971 performance.

"I was introduced to “Freedom’s Plow” by Langston Hughes while participating in a reader's theater for a speech and drama class during my senior year in high school here in Higginsville. Joan Dyer was the teacher for this class.  I distinctly remember performing this reader's theater on the stage in the high school. My life experiences at that time were limited to our small town, my school activities, my church and the friends that I had through these associations.  As time passes, I am profoundly grateful for these experiences and those people that enriched my life.  I believe that the messages expressed through this poem; the value of all men, persistence when faced with obstacles, labor to achieve goals, freedom for all, and building America together, touched me in a way that I could not truly understand at that time. This message is just as relevant now for this generation as it was in the ’70’s.  I saved this script with my class mementos and with it the names of all those who performed in that readers theater.  Now, I am privileged to be part of this Juneteenth celebration and bring this message to another audience. “Keep Your Hand on The Plow! Hold On!”       Donna (Rabius) Owens

Guest speaker “A Long Time Coming” - Ray Anthony Shepard, Historian, Scholar, Author 

About the Author

Ray Anthony Shepard is a grandson of a slave, a former teacher, and retired editor- in-chief of a major education publishing company. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he received a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Now retired, he is dedicated to a new “personal chapter” for himself as an author, specializing in chronicling the little-known facts of the Black experience in the United States.

“I write to provide readers of any age, especially secondary school students, with a fuller view of American slavery and a corrective history of the struggle and anguish of courageous individuals who sought to pursue full American citizenship.”

–Ray Anthony Shepard

Announcements – Linda Smith

Benediction - Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr.

Book Sale & Book Signing with Ray Anthony Shepard

Venders —Some vendors will be selling their wares on 10 am Saturday morning  at the Higginsville Community Building in Fairground Park.

Saturday, June 15, 2024    Grace United Methodist Church – 16 West 15^th St., Higginsville, MO - Reverend Julie Sanders, pastor

The Mission Statement of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation 

Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation Mission statement is to develop and implement a one-day festival that promotes the celebration of family, celebrates African American freedom, and cultivates mutual involvement of social service entities, and economic participation of the county-wide business community.

The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is a non-profit organization.

We Remember You

We recognize the passing of two great friends of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation.  We remember them tonight and gain strength in their support and participation in our Juneteenth celebrations.

Shirley Ann Hollins (Hannon)

December 2, 1936 - May 25, 202

Since 2006, Shirley had a long-term relationship with the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation.  She stated with her friends, Mable Hawkins and Marjorie Hannon.  Walter Mayberry made sure that Shirley and other Odessa volunteers had rides to the meetings that were held in Lexington, MO.  After she joined the Juneteenth Commitee, she was a faithful worker, a great cheerleader and encourager.  She helped to get volunteers and worked to help organize a Juneteenth fundraiser in Odessa, MO.  The event was held to increase awareness and support for black cemeteries.

                                  Margaret L.  Harlan, Ph.D.

                                             March 6, 1931 - November 3, 2023        

We traveled to Sedalia, MO in 2019 and met Marge at the Rose Nolen Black History Library that she and her spouse started.  Ray Anthony Shepard and family joined us for this tour. It was a beautiful facility and Marge and her daughter; Brooke welcomed us on our tour of the facility.  Marge also had a garden and slave cabin on the grounds.  It was the slave cabin which launched Marge into the national news realm.  She bravely fought some streams of negativity.  The library closed in later years.

Two great advocates for freedom and both  witnessed the passage of Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Saturday, June 15, 2024

10 am - 12:30 pm   Unity in Community: “Make A Joyful Sound” - A Community Sing-along of songs from the Civil Rights Movement - Carol Hannon 

“History of the Methodist Church and the Civil Rights Movement– Reverend Julie Sanders.  Come learn about the part that the United Methodist Church played during the Civil Rights movement.

The African Connection – Volunteers who serve as missionaries to Uganda - -Judi Knipmeyer & Family

Shop at the African Market place

Judi Knipmeyer

Fifteen years ago, two young men, Jonathan Ssebambulide a Ugandan, and Michael Warneke, a US citizen, met in Uganda when the latter was serving with a mission organization, Sweet Sleep. As they sat and became acquainted, they both dreamed of a better world for Uganda’s children. Following years of civil war, AIDS, and malaria, the average age for the entire population was 15. Many children were orphaned; nearly all were vulnerable. With much prayer and the help of countless friends, Fields of Dreams Uganda (FoDU) was born from those aspirations in 2012 with the mission to provide hope for the orphaned and vulnerable children of Uganda through the vehicles of soccer and education. FoDU’s ultimate objective was and is to help increase the opportunities for the children they serve — and they believe the best way to do that is through education. 

In 2018, Judi Knipmeyer traveled to Uganda for the first time with her daughter, Jessica Knipmeyer Keltner and son, Aaron Knipmeyer. Her intent was to see the programming her family had supported for a few years and enjoy the experience with her adult children. Instead, she found a new family and a passion for the work of Fields of Dreams Uganda. FoDU currently serves nine partner schools, providing educational support for around 5500 children. This assistance includes scholarships, hygiene kits, tutoring, IT instruction, soccer coaching, character education, career planning, and much more. All of this is done by Ugandans for Ugandans - they have only one US employee who coordinates fund-raising and staff development for the 50 people employed in-country.

Judi will be making her seventh trip to Uganda in July, traveling with her daughter and granddaughter, Marie. She will be sharing the story of FoDU and the Ugandan people and country she has come to love at the Community Building during the Juneteenth celebration on June 15th, 2024. It is a story of hope, love, and the gracious people of Uganda. We hope you will join us.

Lunch Sponsored by The First Presbyterian Church.

Please join us for the last of Saturday’s events.

Higginsville Community Building at Fairground Park

3 pm – 5pm Saturday Fish Fry - Donation for the meal

Rowan Haynes has volunteered to fry the fish.

Video

Tribute to Elders – It is the African tradition to give honor to our elders.

Open mic for poets, musicians, family talent acts- Contact Linda Smith at 816-456-6654 if you want to participate.

Vendors, African Market Place

2025 Juneteenth will be 20-year anniversary - How will you help us celebrate?

Announcements

Sunday, June 16, 2024        ALL ACTIVITIES TODAY ARE IN LEXINGTON, MO

11 AM Service - Second Baptist Church 1201 Main Street, Lexington, MO

Lunch at the Church

2 pm - The Lex 11^th and Franklin, Lexington, MO Free Juneteenth Gospel Festival – sponsored by Minutemen Pride/Lafayette Juneteenth Foundation. Freewill Donations accepted for Chris Banks Memorial Scholarship Fund.  Allan Lee is the coordinator.

The Lafayette County Juneteeth Foundation members thank you all for helping us to make this year's celebration a success.  We can only go far with supportive friends and partners.  

Foundation Members 

Arron Haynes, president; Sheila Lee, vice-president; Carol Hannon, secretary; Linda Smith, Treasurer and Education; Deborah May, Ron Miller, Sadie Miller, Reverend Dale Felder, Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr., Reverend Liz Linsey, Fred Smith, Reverend Mary Williams, Evelyn Trigg, James Watkins, Everett Williams

The Mission Statement of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation 

Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation Mission statement is to develop and implement a one-day festival that promotes the celebration of family, celebrates African American freedom, and cultivates mutual involvement of social service entities, and economic participation of the county-wide business community.

The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is a non-profit organization. 

Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson

1 Lift every voice and sing,
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
high as the listening skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun
of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.

2 Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the bright gleam of our bright star is cast.

3 God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way,
thou who hast by thy might
led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.

S

2024 LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MO JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION

THEME:

" A LONG TIME COMING"

GUEST SPEAKER

RAY ANTHONY SHEPARD

Friday, June 14, 2024

Higginsville Community Building 

Fairground Park

801 West 29th Street

Higginsville, MO  64037

6 pm

The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is excited to announce that Mr. Ray Anthony Shepard will be our guest speaker on Friday, June 14, 2024, at the evening activity.  We are delighted to host Mr. Shepard and bring him back as he requested. He was last with us in June 2019.  After joining us on tour of the Pennytown hamlet area in Saline County, MO, Ray knew that he would finish the book, A Long Time Coming.  He asked to come back to Lafayette County, MO to share it.

A Long Time Coming has won received three starred reviews and was named a Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews.

                                         

About the Author

Ray Anthony Shepard is a grandson of a slave, a former teacher, and retired editor- in-chief of a major education publishing company. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he received a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Now retired, he is dedicated to a new “personal chapter” for himself as an author, specializing in chronicling the little-known facts of the Black experience in the United States.

“I write to provide readers of any age, especially secondary school students, with a fuller view of American slavery and a corrective history of the struggle and anguish of courageous individuals who sought to pursue full American citizenship.”

–Ray Anthony Shepard

Shepard is the author of two other books. 

Runaway is a picture book biography of Ona Judge, a biracial enslaved servant, who defied George and Martha Washington and the first Fugitive Slave Act when she fled from President’s House in Philadelphia (1796). The story focuses on Ona’s decision, and the risks she faced escaping from the life she knew—enslavement—to the unknown life as a fugitive in New Hampshire, a state in the process of becoming slavery free.  Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge by Ray Anthony Shepard

George Stephens and James Henry Gooding felt duty-bound to enlist in the Union Army and prove to the country that “they were worthy of being freemen.” Among the first to sign up for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, an all-Black regiment, they eagerly recruited other free Black men to join them. But it wasn’t long before Stephens and Gooding discovered the harsh realities of army life. As soldiers and also as the war’s first Black correspondents, both men’s eyewitness reports exposed the dangers and the tragedies they experience on and off the battlefield, as well as the shocking injustices they endured in the Union Army.   Now or Never! 54th Massachusetts Infantry’s War to End Slavery by Ray Anthony Shepard

LCJF shares a special thank you

 A recent thank you to our supporters and friends. The public ad appeared in a recent Rocket advertiser issue in 2023.

	LAFAYETTE COUNTY JUNETEENTH FOUNDATION

 

 

JOIN US IN CELEBRATING

 

 

                                                                                    

                                                               

"TIME TO MAKE THAT CHANGE"

                                                              June 23 - 24, 2023 

                                                     HIGGINSVILLE, MISSOURI 

                                               FAIRGROUND PARK

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery. June 19, 1865, union soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with 2000 Federal troops to issue the order hat the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free. This was two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that had become official on January 1, 1863.

The first Lafayette County Juneteenth celebration was held in 2005. There has been annual observance during most years since our start.

Juneteenth National Independence Day is a US federal holiday. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday June 17, 2021. Juneteenth National Independence Day was observed on Monday, June 19, 2023.

The Mission Statement of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation 

Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation Mission statement is to develop and implement a one day festival that promotes the celebration of family, celebrates African-American freedom, and cultivates mutual involvement of social service entities, and economic participation of the county-wide business community.

Aaron Haynes, President, Deborah May -Vice President, Carol Hannon -Secretary, Linda Smith -Treasurer, Fred Smith, Ron Miller, Everett Williams, Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr., Reverend Dale Felder, Ron Miller, Sheila Lee, Evelyn Trigg, James Watkins, and Reverend Mary L. Williams.

Scheduled Events

Friday June 23, 2023 

10:00 am     Annual Juneteenth Flag Raising Program -Ed Schwitzky 4-H Building 

Join us as at the Boy Scout Troop #415 and Lafayette County C-1 Students assist us with our annual flag raising ceremony.  Bleachers will be set up at the Ed Schwitzky 4-H Building in Fairground Park.

10:30 am      Annual Meet & Greet - Community Building - Fairground Park

You are invited to join community group leaders and volunteers to meet and get acquainted and share.    We will learn about what is going on in our Lafayette County communities.  The Lafayette County C-1 students will make a special presentation. Refreshments will be served.

1:00 pm    Presentation by Ray Sutherland   Lafayette County School Middle School students will be our special guests.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

2:00 pm    Why Juneteenth Matters   This is a panel presentation and Dr. Bonita Butner, Reverend Dale Felder, Reverend Wilbur Conway, and Ron Miller.  Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr., moderator.

3:00 pm     Service Is the Rent We Pay   A panel of community persons who share their volunteer efforts in our communities. Panelists include Allan Lee, Helen Moore, and Teresa Gosoroski.  Linda Smith will be the moderator.   Update about the area black cemeteries' progress since an initiative that started several years ago. Voter registration and voting info will be available, too.

4:00 pm    Help us get ready for the Annual Welcome Dinner.  Our "pot of luck" meal will be served from 4:30 pm to 5:50 pm.  The LCJF will provide the meats, bread, and drinks.  We ask that our guests bring their best side dishes and desserts.  There is no charge, but a donation box will be available.

4:30 pm - 5:50 pm     Annual Welcome Dinner

6:00 pm   "I Got MY....job, degree, vocational certificate, license, small business, etc!"   A panel of young adults will share what they are doing.  Panelists are Lawrence Cuington,  Jada Hall, Kaylee Henry, Malick Manney, and Terrence Swinney, Le'Andrea Lewis, and Carol Hannon is the moderator.

Panelists

Lawrence Cuington is the owner of Cuington Building & Remodeling LLC.  He has been a sole entrepreneur since 1990.  He started as a mechanic.  He went to North Lake College in Texas and studied under the National Association of Home Builders!  Lawrence is also a licensed minister of the gospel.   He serves as an associate minister at Second Missionary Baptist Church.

Jada Hall is a 2020 graduate of Lee's Summit North High School.  She is currently enrolled in her senior year at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Majoring in Studio Art.  Jada is a member of Second Missionary Baptist Church, Lexington, MO.

Kaylee Henry is a senior undergraduate student at the University of Central Missouri majoring in Child and Family Development with intention pursue her graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Kaylee has spent the last 2 years of her professional career in an administrative role at UCM. She is now the Assistant Program Director at Pro Deo Youth Center working with at risk-youth in the Lees Summit area. She moves forward on the Pro Deo team with a focus on building connections, providing consistency, and serving the youth of Lee’s Summit.

Le'Andrea Hannon-Lewis  is a graduate of Warrensburg High School class of 1998 and Central Missouri State University(now UCM) class of 2002, where she earned a B.A. in Psychology.  She has worked as a social worker for Pathways, the State of Missouri, and was also employed as a first grade teacher in the Raytown School District.   She is currently a consultant for Tastefully Simple.  Le'Andrea is  married to Rev. Brandon Lewis, and has a 4-year-old daughter, Audriana.  She is a member of Second Missionary Baptist Church, Lexington, MO, where she serves as the church pianist.   

Milek Manney is a 2022 graduate v of Lee's Summit North High School.   He is a soldier in the Army National Guard.  While studying business at Metropolitan Community College, Milek cuts hair at Classic Transformation Barber Academy.  After completing his associate degree, Milek plans to join the ROTC Officer Academy at Missouri University while barbering!  He is a member of Second Missionary Baptist Church, Lexington, MO.

Terrence Swinney is a native of Lexington, Missouri. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in geography specialize in meteorology from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. He went on to receive his masters degree in Strategic Leadership from the University of Charleston,  WV. For many years, Terence has been a collegiate volleyball coach, coaching both division 1 and division 2 volleyball. He has coached volleyball at the following schools: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, University of Charleston, Saint Francis University, University of Missouri - Kansas City, and currently at Rockhurst University. For his full-time job, he works at Parexel as an initiation clinical research associate, which is a pharmaceutical research company. 
Terence is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. He holds the position as the Membership Intake Coordinator.  Terrence is a member of Second Missionary Baptist Church, Lexington, MO.

7:00 pm    Evening program will include Evelyn Trigg as our MC, special music by Carol Hannon, dramatization performed by Sheila Lee, recognition of people who planned the first ever Juneteenth celebration in our county, reminiscing about past Juneteenth celebrations through a special video, and plans for Juneteenth 2024.  A keynote address will be given by Reverend Mary L. Williams!  Reverend Williams has been a longtime friend and supporter of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation and our celebrations.

Reverend Mary L. Williams

     Introduction of Rev. Mary L. Williams

 

     Rev. Mary Williams is a native of the East Texas town of Beaumont.  Living only forty-five miles from Galveston (where the news of freedom for African Americans was first delivered), she has celebrated Juneteenth all of her life.  She recalls being out of school on that day; participating in parades; being able to go to the Fair (not allowed to attend every day, due to segregation), and eating our favorite foods.

     Her family consists of her late husband Clyde, married almost fifty years; a son, Hakim and his wife Jessica; and daughter Aisha, along with three grandchildren. She moved to Marshall in 1990, to pastor three United Methodist Churches, also in Sedalia and Slater.

      Her academics include graduating from segregated Charlton-Pollard High School in Beaumont, TX; a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Prairie View A & M University; and a M.Div. In Pastoral Counseling from Phillips University.

       She has a varied ministry as a Youth, Family and Marriage Counselor; Hospital, Correctional and Industrial Chaplain; Adjunct College Professor; School Teacher, Business Owner. 

      Her yearning to minister to people in developing counties led her to do missionary work in places like Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. She was able to experience what is was like to live under apartheid in South Africa.

       Prior to her ministerial calling, Mary worked at NASA in Houston, TX during the first Lunar Landing, as well as on the Space Shuttle Program. She has also done research in Nuclear and Environmental Physics.

      It brings her joy to visit schools and share her love, knowledge and experience of African and African-American history, art and artifacts. Her passion is mentoring youth; traveling the world; and Creole cooking.

      An author of several books, short stories, many poems, religious articles, and animated children’s sermons, her favorite style of writing is Creole. This recalls her mother and great aunt’s conversations, when they didn’t want others to know what they were saying.  As a very active member of her community, she serves in a leadership role on many boards, agencies, and clubs.

 

WE ARE ON THE MOVE!!

Saturday, June 24, 2023    Black Archives Museum, 3406 Fredrick Avenue, St. Joseph, MO

We will meet at the Community Building and departure time is 9 am!  We are excited to take a road trip to beautiful St. Joseph, MO.   We will be touring the Black Archives Museum.  We have a group rate of $7.00 per person.  We will stop at a local Golden Corral for lunch on your own.  We are carpooling and if you need a ride, please contact Arron Haynes at 816-419-3704.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

We invite you to join us as we worship at the Second Baptist Church, 1201 Main Street, Lexington, MO. Worship service starts at 11 am.  Reverend Everett Hannon is the pastor.

For further information, please contact  Arron Haynes, President at 816-419-3704, email him at abhaynes@ctcis.net.

The other Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation committee members are as follows: Deborah May -Vice President, Carol Hannon -Secretary, Linda Smith -Treasurer, Fred Smith, Ron Miller, Everett Williams, Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr., Reverend Dale Felder, Ron Miller, Sheila Lee, Evelyn Trigg, James Watkins, and Reverend Mary L. Williams.

 Check out our Facebook page, and the blog at https://lafayettecountyjuneteenth.blogspot.com/. The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is a non-profit organization.

 

 

2023 LAFAYETTE COUNTY JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION - "TIME TO MAKE THAT CHANGE!"

 The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is sponsoring a 2023 Juneteenth Celebration.  The event will be held on Friday, June 23, 2023 and Saturday, June 24, 2023.  The Friday celebration scheduled activities will be held at the Higginsville Community Center located at the Fairground Park. Activities are free and family-friendly.  The theme is "TIME TO MAKE THAT CHANGE!

The Foundation members are Arron Haynes - President, Deborah May-Vice President, Carol Hannon -Recording Secretary, Linda Smith -Treasurer, Reverend Everett Hannon, Reverend Dale Felder, Reverend Mary Williams, Fred Smith, Sheila Lee, Ron Miller, Everett Williams, James Watkins, and Evelyn Trigg.

Friday activities will include the morning flag ceremony and the annual MEET & GREET.  Everyone is welcome.  We invite people and organizations that are wanting to network and partner with us. We share about what we are doing.  Light refreshments will be provided.

The afternoon will start off with a time to learn.  Afternoon activities will include "Why Juneteenth Matters"- a panel of speakers will give their perspectives, an update about the Initiative for the Care and Preservation of Black Cemeteries, voter registration and voting information, and taking part in our annual Welcome Dinner.  The Foundation provides the meat, bread, and drinks.  We ask that others bring your favorite side dish or dessert.

We close out the evening by hearing how some made that change!   The evening activities will include a panel of motivated and talented young adults who will share on the panel how they got their degrees, vocational certifications, started small businesses, etc.

 Our keynote speaker, Reverend Mary Williams, will close out our Friday program.

      WE ARE ON THE MOVE!!

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Black Archives Museum | St. Joseph Museums (stjosephmuseum.org)

We are excited to take a road trip to beautiful St. Joseph, MO.  We will be touring the Black Archives of St. Joseph, MO. This town is known for many things, especially where the Pony Express started.  

A final schedule will be shared at a later date. 

Arron Haynes, President at 816-419-3704 or email him at abhaynes@ctcis.net.  The Lafayette County Juneteenth Foundation is a non-profit organization.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT PRESENTATION – Reverend Andy Mockridge - 9 AM ON SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022

9:00 AM - Underground Railroad Quilt Presentation – Reverend Andy Mockridge - My Interest in the Underground Railroad and How this Quilt Block Sampler Came to Be   “It was an honor to be called by Arron Haynes in 2021 and asked if I would like to be a member of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Planning Committee. As soon as we got off the phone an idea popped into my head: I could make a quilt for the 2022 Juneteenth celebration. The design that kept surfacing in my mind was of a quilt block sampler containing many of the quilt blocks used in coded-quilts during the 1800’s. The purpose of these quilts and their embedded codes was to aid enslaved persons in their escape and flight to freedom via the Underground Railroad.           For me, this quilt block sampler represents an opportunity to educate people about: the ingenuity and courage of those who made the Underground Railroad possible and those who utilized it; the dangers and challenges of attempting to escape the bonds of slavery; and, how critical the Underground Railroad was to freeing thousands of enslaved people.”

A PANEL - LEST WE FORGET: THE VITAL ROLES OF BLACK SCHOOLS AND BLACK TEACHERS BEFORE SCHOOL INTEGRATION

The Vital Roles of Black Schools and Black Educators Before School Integration.   Reverend Everett Hannon, Jr , pastor of the Second Missionary Baptist Church and moderator, Reverend Alvin Dixon, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Richmond, MO and panel. Panelists will share their experiences of being educated in schools for black children. Recognition of those who attended the schools in Higginsville, Lexington, Odessa,  and Mayview, MO and other towns. We want to always remember that these schools had a vital role in educating children. Panelists are Minnie Elmore, Milton Smith, James Watkins, Ewellen Elliott, Joyce Haynes, Mable Hawkins. Richard Williams, and Micheal Slaughter. You will hear them share their experiences. Their interest in the topic helped us to have two panels. Did you know about a black man who wanted children to learn to read and write and helped in an unusal way? Because of the law, they couldn't go to the school, so he held classes on a boat. The river was the property of the U.S. governement so he wasn't breaking the St. Louis, MO law which did not allow school for black children.