ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A Juneteenth celebration and festival was held Monday in St. Augustine’s historic Lincolnville neighborhood to celebrate freedom, community and youth.
The event was held in the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center located in a neighborhood rich with African American history.
There were vendors, dancing, music, and more that brought the community together and told the story behind Lincolnville.
Ceasia Djehuti, the organizer of the event, said, “If you had to tell somebody new in a nutshell, what is Lincolnville? Oh, my goodness. Lincolnville represents the struggle during the civil rights movement, where Martin Luther King marched up and down and was incarcerated. It represents the African Americans that built this community back in the day. So, we, African Americans, actually established Lincolnville for what it is.”
Lincolnville, a central location in the city’s history of emancipation and civil rights, was established after emancipation by freedmen and served as a major site of the civil rights movement, where demonstrations were organized that directly led to the passing of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. The neighborhood, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be the backdrop for many of the Juneteenth events in the city.
In Lincolnville, one will also find the Corner Market. It is one of the first in Lincolnville and it’s been passed down from family to family. These are the things visitors come down and learn about the history of St. Augustine, and more importantly, the history of Lincolnville.
“St. Augustine’s history of emancipation spans from its founding during the Spanish colonial era as the first free Black community to the Civil War era, and when the historic Lincolnville neighborhood was founded. As America’s oldest city, this is an ideal place to celebrate the holiday,” said Christina Parrish Stone, executive director of the St. Johns Cultural Council.
Every day tourists flock to Downtown St. Augustine to enjoy the sights and sounds of the nation’s oldest city without being aware of its history.
The Plaza De La Constitution stands as an open-air pavilion that used to be a slave market, a fact that many tourists hadn’t realized.
The Gareau family said they had no clue about the pavilion’s history but realized how important it is.
“I would think there would be more memorializing in this specific area,” one family member said.
“Knowing all the horrible things that happened just makes you think,” another family member said.
Mariyah Pillay and Markel King traveled to Lincolnville from Hastings with their children to teach their children black history.
“For me, especially since my children are mixed kids, I want them to understand where half their family comes from. The trials and tribulations that black people as a whole have always and still continue to go through. I want them to see how important it is to embrace their culture, their heritage, and learn where they came from,” Pillay said.
For more information about Black history in St. Augustine, visit the St. Johns Cultural Council’s website here.