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Rueben Hays, organizer and executive director of the Juneteenth Greenville festival in South Carolina, initially said he and his co-founders wanted a diverse range of ethnicities represented.
The organizer of a Juneteenth celebration in South Carolina has apologized and promised to make things right after initially defending the banners advertising the event.
WYFF News 4 reported that 50 banners depicting several ethnicities – including Black, Hispanic and white – have been erected to promote Juneteenth Greenville, a week-long event honoring the day set aside to commemorate the abolition of slavery in America.
Some community members had concerns about the banners, but Rueben Hays, the event’s organizer and executive director, initially said they were intentional because he and his co-founders wanted a varied spectrum of races represented.
However, in an Instagram post shared Thursday night, Hays called the banners depicting non-Black faces a mistake.
“This error was an attempt at uniting all of Greenville and thereby a slight oversight on one individual’s part that prevented us from embracing the rich potential and celebrating the depth of the Black culture through the message and meaning of Juneteenth,” he shared, “and for that, we apologize to you the entire community.”
According to its website, Juneteenth GVL aims to unite all Americans to celebrate a shared connection of freedom by recognizing, promoting and preserving Juneteenth as a national holiday.
The longest-running African American holiday, June 19 commemorates the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to seize control of the state and guarantee the freedom of all enslaved people.
It’s been a national holiday since June 17, 2021.
The Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential decree calling for the release of all enslaved people, was signed more than two years before the troops’ arrival.
The Juneteenth GVL event runs from June 10 to 17.
“The images on the flag were very intentional,” Pete Lee, Juneteenth GVL co-founder, previously shared, WYFF reported. “No matter what you believe, it takes everybody to come together and support and push any vision forward.”
Lee added that Black people have long been pounding on the door of inclusion and requesting a seat at the table, and now that it’s available, “the last thing we want to do is what’s been done for years is to exclude.”
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