The results of the midterm elections and the blue wave that ushered in a record number of Black governors loomed large during this year’s Emancipation Day celebration in Greenbelt on Saturday, November 7 at the Community Center. Since 2018, Greenbelt has hosted the event commemorating November 1, 1864, the date when Maryland approved a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in the state.
The event featured poems and songs that remembered the struggles of enslaved Black people. It also included a libation ceremony, led by Dr. Lois Rosado, retired educator and founding chair of Greenbelt’s Black History and Culture Committee. The libation was a tradition that honored the memories of Black people from the times of slavery through the recent times of council meetings. As a practice of the tradition, Rosado read out the morals instilled by Black ancestors while attendees chorused “ashé” as a sign of agreement.
Rosado emphasized the need to preserve and teach African traditions, especially to the younger generation. “We must work hard to instill positive notions of the diaspora in today’s Black youth, because most, unfortunately, don’t know their history or their greatness,” Rosado said in an address delivered during the event.
From the youngest performer at the event, Sarae Payne, 17, a senior at Crossland High School, to the oldest, labor lawyer James M. Harkless, 95, a Harvard University graduate, the message centered around the role of the Black community in the peace and freedom enjoyed in the United States.
Payne electrified the crowd of about 50 with her poem titled Black History, including the lines “You better go do your research because the world runs on the Black influence.”
Payne said she drew her inspiration for the poem from the results of the recent midterm elections, which she saw as a sign of how the Black community is taking the reins of political leadership.
For the first time in U.S. history, five Black governors will hold the highest office in their states. Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore (D), who was elected to a second term, will be joined by the first-time governors elect: Byron Donalds (R), Florida; Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), Georgia; David Crowley (D), Wisconsin; and Aaron Ford (D), Nevada. “My inspiration for all of my poems is to spark a change in my community, in America,” Payne said.
Harkless, who sang with other choristers of the Washington Revels Jubilee Voices, said the belief in a Black community bound by love fuels his energy to continue singing, a hobby he has been showcasing since he was 10. He has been with the Jubilee Voices choir since they were formed out of the Revels arts community in 2010. Their a cappella music epitomized Black history and its stories of resilience, especially during times like the American Civil War.
This sort of legacy of freedom is the same that Jubilee Voices vocalist Matt Pearson, 43, an architectural designer, hopes the younger generation will continue to preserve. “America is still an experiment, and we shape the outcome,” Pearson said. “If anyone claims that America’s not for you, they’re wrong.”
Gabriel Ogunjobi is a University of Maryland graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism writing for the Greenbelt News Review
