Join the residents of Liberty, Missouri as they celebrate the Juneteenth holiday by taking a trolley tour of 10 historic African American sites in the city.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – We’re days away from the Juneteenth holiday but residents in Liberty, Missouri are already celebrating. The day commemorates the freedom of slaves in the United States and the Clay County African American Legacy kicked it off Friday with a trolley tour of 10 historic African American sites in the city.
Tourists got a street view of Liberty’s Garrison Historic District. The sites toured include the Fairview Cemetery, Garrison School, and Water Street Mural.
“You have to know your history and build on it,” said Clay County African American president AJ Byrd.
Brick by brick, Byrd’s family built a foundation in the city of Liberty. Each of the sites toured still stands as a reminder of the city’s segregated past. In 1850, 20 percent of the city’s population was African American and there were only 14 free black people in the entire county. This is according to the Garrison School Cultural Center, and Byrd’s great-great-grandfather was one of them.
A black man in 1843 could read was something powerful and so then it helped me understand why my family put so much emphasis on education,” said Byrd.
Byrd attended school at Garrison School, the first public school for black youth in the city. He later became among the first generation to go to college.
“The obvious elements of segregation with the signage, ‘White Only’ and all those kinds of things, they’re down in most places but there’s still that subtle racism that still exists,” said Byrd.
Byrd celebrates Juneteenth as a descendant of slaves, while others like Robert Wegley support as a descendant of slave owners.
“I’m really not ashamed of my family. I’m disappointed in what they did, but the times were what people believed were incorrect,” said Wegley who serves on the board of directors for Clay Countians for Inclusion.
Now he’s working to have the Confederate Monument on display at the Fairview Cemetery removed. It’s the same monument his great-great-grandmother unveiled.
“I’m delighted to see African Americans living in various different parts of town. That would not have happened in the 1950s ′s and 1960s ′s here,” said Wegley.
Byrd says in order to get a better understanding of present-day Liberty, local historians it’s best to look at the past.
“You have to know where you come from in order to progress, to defeat racism, to defeat some of the things that are challenging us, economic poverty, people have to recognize some of the things that have happened and everybody didn’t start at the same point in life if we wanted to describe it as a race,” said Byrd.
Saturday events begin at 9 am with a ribbon-cutting dedication of the Samuel C. Houston Memorial Highway at the intersection of 152 (Kansas St.) and 291. Houston’s family was among the first African American families to settle in Clay County in the 1800s.
Houston worked tirelessly to fight for civil rights and public accommodation laws in the 1960s in Liberty. Houston marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis in 1968 along with thousands of others who supported a citywide sanitation workers strike.
On his first attempt at politics in 1975, Houston ran for Liberty City Council, beating the incumbent to become the first African American elected official in Clay County. He served on the Liberty City Council for 18 years.
n 2008, Houston was presented the Outstanding Missourian Award on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives. Local and state public officials and members of the Sam Houston family will cut the ribbon to officially designate the highway as the Samuel C. Houston Memorial Highway.
Additional Saturday events include:
10:30 a.m. One woman play – “Cathy Williams: A Female Buffalo Soldier”10:30 a.m. One woman play – “Cathy Williams: A Female Buffalo Soldier”
Garrison Cultural Center, 520 N. Water St.)
1:30 p.m. Parade (Begins at Garrison Cultural Center to Rooney Justice Center)
2:00 p.m. Main stage acts at the Rooney Justice Center, 11 S. Water Street
New Life Church Mass Choir of Wichita, KS; Sunbeam Youth Matrons Choir – Kaw
Valley District Association; Krizz Kaliko – Headliner
5:00 p.m. Juneteenth Pub Crawl hosted by local restaurants (Downtown Liberty Square)
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