Juneteenth celebrations across New Hampshire Thursday marked the end of slavery in the U.S. nearly 160 years ago. But participants at many events, including at a freedom walk on the Seacoast, had the present day on their minds: This year’s celebrations come as state lawmakers push to prohibit programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in New Hampshire schools.
A morning march across the Piscataqua River, from Kittery, Maine to Portsmouth, was both a celebration and protest for many in the crowd.
Sunish Oturkar, of Dover, said it feels like the rhetoric aimed at people in diverse communities is intensifying and hitting closer to home. He said he felt compelled to join the walk, which ended at the African Burying Ground Memorial in Portsmouth.
“The only thing that we have is power in numbers,” said Oturkar. “And so participating in something like this is important to me because it shows that we have those numbers, and so that we can hold the line on the values that we hold dear.”
Roza Anthony and her 8-year-old son Dante Bergeret, both of Stow, Massachusetts, made the two-hour trip to the Seacoast march. She said the increasing discrimination she sees today isn’t new. But increased awareness among her white neighbors is, she said.
“I think this is the world that we have always lived in, and a lot of white people and a lot of people with privilege got to not notice it for a long time,” Anthony said.
Dante wasn’t thrilled about getting up at 6 a.m. to get to the walk in time, but his mother saw it as a teaching moment.
“They say if you don't know the history, you're going to repeat it,” Anthony said. “We can't repeat it. It's not okay. That's not acceptable. That's not the world I want my children to live in.”
Peter Brown of Lyman, Maine was among the dozens of walkers Thursday. He just published a book, “I Aam Jayvn,” about a 12-year-old boy brought to America and enslaved. Brown began writing it two years ago, after the state of Florida restricted the teaching of African American history and slavery in public schools.
New Hampshire has since passed similar legislation, and Republican lawmakers have sought to put a provision in the state budget that would prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public schools.
“I never saw things getting as bad as they've gotten,” Brown said.
