No concerns over three children being wounded at a block party.
Via Philly Com
In the shadow of Charleston, scores gathered in Germantown on Saturday to celebrate the events of a day 150 years ago – the freeing of slaves on American soil.
People met near the spot where the first protest against slavery was written, joined a loud, drum-banging march up and down hilly Germantown Avenue, and fell silent at emotional reenactments of the plight of those who had been held in servitude.
They called out the names of ancestors and remembered those whose names have been lost.
None could ignore the irony that on a Juneteenth holiday to celebrate the end of slavery, families in South Carolina were preparing to bury nine African Americans shot to death in their church.
“I especially wanted to remember them,” said Iraina Salaam, who led the calling of names.
Juneteenth, a contraction of “June 19,” originated in 1865 in Texas and remains the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery. This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 13th Amendment, which enshrined abolition in the Constitution.[…]
On the avenue Saturday, as children played in a bounce house and elders listened to a jazz band, Christopher Collins Sr. was angry.
“They should have walked him back to the church, let him see what he done, and shot him in the head,” Collins said.
Others saw it differently.
“It’s not about hate. It’s about forgiveness,” said Kevin Harrell, at the event with his wife, Charlmayne, and 2-year-old son, Maaz.