A sea of red, green, black and yellow filled Dawes Park as Evanston residents of all ages walked 2.5 miles along the lakefront to kick off Juneteenth celebrations on Friday. The city’s seventh annual Juneteenth Celebration began this year with Opal’s Walk for Freedom, in which participants honored Black history and resilience while highlighting the ongoing fight for equality.
Evanston was selected as Illinois’ host city this year for the walk, a national initiative honoring the legacy of civil rights activist and educator Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” whose walking campaign was instrumental in Juneteenth’s recognition as a federal holiday in 2021.
The 2.5-mile walk represents the two and half years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach enslaved individuals in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.
“It speaks to the fact that just because something is a law, sometimes you need other collective action to bring it forward,” said Kemone Hendricks, founder of Evanston’s annual Juneteenth celebration. “This is such a significant way for people of all races, all ages to come out and commemorate Juneteenth.”
Friday’s walk kicked off at Arrington Lagoon at 10:30 a.m., and participants marched north and around Northwestern’s Segal Visitors Center, looping back through NU’s Arts Circle to the lakefront path. The walk continued along the lakefront, finishing back at the lagoon for the city’s annual Juneteenth Celebration.
Hendricks said Evanston previously hosted Opal’s Walk for Freedom in 2022. She is the founder of education and scholarship nonprofit Evanston Present and Future and owner of marketing and event planning firm Mari Enterprise, which both organized this year’s walk in partnership with Texas-based education nonprofit Unity Unlimited, making Evanston one of the seven official locations for the walk across the country.
Many participants in Friday’s walk wore t-shirts reading “100” to celebrate Lee, who will turn 100 years old in October.
In 2016, Lee began her campaign walking from her home in Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. Each day, she walked 2.5 miles for the two and half years it took for the news of emancipation to reach Texas.
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in 2021 to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday with Lee in attendance. In 2024, Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her decades of advocacy.
Now, Lee and her family are working to bring Opal’s Walk for Freedom to all 50 states.
Lee’s granddaughter Dione Sims led Evanston’s walk on Friday as its grand marshal. She said her family members are leading other walks across the country, her son taking charge in Washington and her daughter in Fort Worth with Lee herself.
Sims said they chose Evanston as Illinois’ host city because of their existing connection to Hendricks — Sims and Lee met the longtime Evanston resident in 2021 — and because of the city’s historic reparations program.
She said the walk functions as a “temperature check” every year on the state of freedom and equality in the U.S. since Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
“We are not free yet,” Sims said. “I mean, there is not complete parity and equity in wages and health care and housing and loans for businesses.”
Evanston Township High School Principal Quiana McNeal and District 202 Superintendent Marcus Campbell led the ETHS contingent of the walk, including performances by the ETHS Pomkits and the ETHS Wildkit Marching Band.
McNeal said she felt excited and inspired to see the younger generation express joy and pride toward what she considers a very important day.
“I think it’s beautiful that, as a school community, we embrace Juneteenth and the pride that it represents because you don’t see a lot of places doing that in this way with our student body,” McNeal said.
As the walk proceeded south on the lakefront path, onlookers cheered and waved Juneteenth flags and music swelled from the Wildkit Marching Band, which brought up the rear of the walk.
Evanston resident Michael James added to the walk’s soundtrack with his drums. James said he’s been playing since he was about 10 years old and sees it as a way to honor his ancestors.
“Me out here drumming is just saying to them, ‘Thank you for persevering,’” James said.
Several local organizations also participated in the walk, including Kuumba Evanston, a nonprofit serving families of color through sports, arts and education, and Armor Down Girls, an after-school program aiming to increase girls’ self-confidence, centering Black girls and girls of color.
After the walk, Hendricks announced the winners of the Dr. Opal Lee Barbie Doll giveaway. Lee was honored with the collectible doll in January as part of Mattel’s Barbie Inspiring Women collection.
Mayor Daniel Biss and several City Council members participated in the walk, marching alongside Sims and Hendricks at the front of the parade. Biss said it was an honor to speak with Sims at the celebration.
“I think we live in this time where our connection to history is tenuous, and because of that, we sometimes don’t learn our own stories well enough to change our behavior,” Biss told The Daily on Friday.
On Tuesday, the federal government moved to join a lawsuit challenging Evanston’s reparations program. Approved in 2019, the program is the nation’s first municipal reparations initiative.
In reference to the federal government’s announcement, Biss said it’s important to “do the right thing” and to do so “clearly and loudly.”
“There’s a choice that people, organizations, cities, states are confronted with: Do you go along with Donald Trump’s effort to lie about our history and embed bigotry into our present and future, or do you stand strong in the face of their threats?” Biss said.
Some participants echoed Biss’ sentiment at Friday’s celebration, expressing concerns about what they consider the Trump administration’s efforts to curb free speech and assembly.
For James, coming together is a powerful aspect of Juneteenth.
“We need these moments like today because this country is going backwards,” James said.
Sims similarly said that Juneteenth unifies people to celebrate “humanity and human dignity,” and she said it’s essential to keep those values at the core of the holiday.
“Right now, not just for Black folks, for all Americans, our freedom measure has come down: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to live, freedom to not be accosted and dragged off and deported,” Sims said.
Hendricks added that it’s especially crucial to celebrate Juneteenth and remember the history the holiday represents amid challenges to Evanston’s reparations program.
Hendricks highlighted that “often freedom comes unevenly” and requires collective action.
“We can come together and unite and change and make an impact on what’s been happening, this attack on our reparations,” Hendricks said. “And it’s not impossible because it’s been done before. We have that in our memory, and that’s why Juneteenth is so important right now.”
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