The Juneteenth celebration in Potsdam in 2022. Photo taken by Laura Bolduc.
Jun 19, 2024 —
The official Juneteenth holiday was earlier this week, but the celebrations continue this weekend. The 5th annual Juneteenth Celebration in Potsdam is Saturday from 4-8 pm at Ives Park. Krys Carter, who’s helping coordinate the event, says the day is meant to celebrate Black history and promote Black-owned businesses.
EMILY RUSSELL: For people who go to the event on Saturday— the Juneteenth celebration in Potsdam— Can you paint me a picture, Like what will it be like there?
KRYS CARTER: What the event will consist of is celebrating Juneteenth, which obviously is the day that the last of the slaves were notified that they were free in this country, which was June 19, 1865. What we are focusing on is not only the history of that, but we are going to be focusing on the local Black companies within this area as well. Also, we are going to be having an event with the Red Cross where there’s going to be a blood drive mainly focusing on sickle cell anemia, which affects a majority Black people
RUSSELL: And tell me more about working with Black-owned businesses. Why is that important? And what will that be like at the event?
CARTER: Why it’s important to focus on Black-owned businesses, especially around here, is the fact that throughout American history there have been times when Black businesses were not patroned due to the fact that there has been racism and everything else and this gives the Black-owned businesses in this area a little bit of free marketing as well as putting [them] out there because there are times that they may not be well known. Sometimes we go by word of mouth and in a small community such as the North Country, it may not get out there as well as in a bigger city where there’s more television marketing and internet and everything else.
RUSSELL: And do I have this right that there’s going to be music there as well?
CARTER: Yes, there’s going to be live music. There’s going to be a jazz band there as well as traditional African music.
RUSSELL: What do you hope people take away from their experience at the Juneteenth celebration in Potsdam?
CARTER: Well with the demographics of the North Country what I hope is gained from this is that— not only the Black people that attend but the whites that live in this area, which is obviously the majority in this area— that they learn a little bit about not only Black history but American history and bring together some of the divisiveness that we’ve seen in the last couple of years in this country when it comes to race and understanding of the history of other races in this country.
RUSSELL: When you think about the North country, where do you see it on the spectrum of racial equity and inclusion and the work that still needs to be done?
CARTER: I think that due to the low number of minorities— in those cases, Blacks— I think that there’s not enough understanding of the importance of diversity in this area. I believe that it’s important, once again, to understand that there is a history when it comes to not only the Black minorities in this country, but all minorities in this country, whether they be Hispanic, Native, or Asian. Over the last couple of years that I’ve been in St. Lawrence County, I’ve seen people who just are like, ‘Oh my God, I’m tired of hearing about racism,’ or about the different minorities and everything else. From a minority perspective, when you’re constantly hearing racist remarks or those types of things, such as my kids, when they went to the school that they attend, they heard specific derogatory words about their race and about them being of mixed race. So I think that the celebration of Juneteenth could potentially help with the understanding of things like that in this area.