D.C. Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Contact:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
STATEHOOD GREEN LEADERS TO SPEAK AT JUNETEENTH
CELEBRATION, JUNE 19 IN D.C.
Event: Juneteenth Celebration and D.C. Music
Festival
Date: Sunday, June 19, 2005
Time: 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Location: African American Civil War Memorial, U Street and Vermont
Avenue, NW in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- D.C. Statehood Green Party
leaders Jared Ball and Rick Tingling-Clemmons will speak at the
Juneteenth Celebration and D.C. Music Festival on June 19, 2005 in
Washington, D.C.
The event will commemorate the 140th anniversary
of the day, June 19, 1865, when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas
to establish the Emancipation Proclamation as law in the last state of
Confederate rebellion -- 2½ years after the date of the Emancipation
Proclamation (January 1, 1863).
Jared Ball of Blackademics on WPFW will host the
celebration. Mr. Ball is a member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party's
steering committee, as is Mr. Tingling-Clemmons, who is also slated to
speak.
"Juneteenth is a sad irony. The annual
celebration commemorates the delayed arrival of a message of freedom
that by mere fact of its belated arrival demonstrates on top of
demonstration that no proclamation of an enslaver can free the
enslaved," said Jared Ball. "A freedom proffered cannot be
that which must be taken. To accept the myth that it was an
emancipation proclamation that ended enslavement is to accept that we
are today free. Only by accepting plantation slavery as a standard for
the human condition can we accept the wage slavery of today as
freedom. Neither myth is, to me, acceptable."
Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Ward 7 Representative to
the party's Steering Committee and National Committee Representative
for the Green Party's Black Caucus, noted Juneteenth's importance for
D.C.: "Denying the majority population statehood is a
continuation of a level of servitude and lack of self-determination,
which are part of the conditions of slavery. It is known throughout
history that everyone who has been freed from slavery freed
themselves. As we all know, Europeans were enslaved to varying
degrees; it is when they and we stand up, demand and achieve
liberation from hunger, homelessness, ill health, equal opportunity to
jobs and education will we complete this endless war for justice and
self-determination for ourselves and all the world."
The Juneteenth Celebration is being organized by
the African American Civil War Museum, D.C. Statehood Green Party,
Head-Roc.com, Upset The Setup, members of Empower D.C., Left Turn
Magazine, Organized C.O.U.P, Thermite Records, Jubilant Sound, and
Abdir-Rahim Muhammad of The Hung Tao Choi Mei Leadership Institute, in
association with the African American Civil War Memorial.
Scheduled musical performers include:
. The Head-Roc War Machine
. Mello D and The Rados
. Machetres
. DJ Sam "The Man" Burns
. Flash Gordan
. DJ Curtis Lee
. DJ Stylus
. DJ Dub
. DJ Vince Brown
. The Lucky Lions Martial Arts Troop
Scheduled speakers:
. Hari Jones, Curator, African American Civil War Museum
. Members of Empower D.C.
. Abdur Rahim Muhammed
. Rami Elamine, Left Turn Magazine
. Luci Murphy, Alternate Roots
. Rick Tingling-Clemmons, D.C. Statehood Green Party
. Ayo Handy Kendi, African American Holiday Association
MORE INFORMATION
The D.C. Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Head-Roc.com: Information about Juneteenth in D.C.
Vance Levy, 301-891-3095, juneteenth@head-roc.com
http://head-roc.com
Information about Juneteenth
http://www.juneteenth.com
