The Buffalo Soldiers Of Seattle, 9th-10th Cavalry from a Seattle Juneteenth past (Image: Karen Toering)
A Friday of actions to mark Juneteenth will further efforts to re-center Seattle’s ongoing demonstrations on the city’s Black community and Black Lives Matter goals,
In the Central District, leaders from Africatown and the King County Equity Now coalition will rally at 22nd and Madison for a march to Jimi Hendrix Park and a day of rallies, a teach-in, and a celebration of Black graduates.
The Africatown-led King County Equity Now coalition has emerged from the protests with a roster of demands for officials to accept proposals from “Black-led, community-based organizations to maximize” the use of “underutilized public land for community benefit” at a roster of Central Seattle properties.
The city has so far agreed to a community plan for Fire Station 6 at 23rd and Yesler. The group has also echoed demands for defunding SPD with a call to “redistribute $180 million from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) budget.”
Organizers on “Free Capitol Hill,” meanwhile, will lead an effort to re-center the protest and camp on its Black participants. Friday’s Juneteenth Blackout at the CHOP will include meditation and yoga, a “grief ritual,” and dancing:
“What we need from our non-black allies are donations of money and supplies and the willingness to support by quietly protecting sacred space for black healing,” organizers write.
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This is great!
Congrats to the grads.