The History of Juneteenth in Sulphur Springs
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You may or may not know about Juneteenth, local historian Prince Beachum says. Known alternatively as Freedom Day, it commemorates June 19, 1865, the abolition of slavery in Texas.
The holiday hasn’t always celebrated its historical roots in Sulphur Springs, though, according to Beachum.
“A couple of older guys used to have a circus for the community… we got away from that, our generation,” Beachum said. “The kids didn’t know what June 19th was. They thought it was just a party.”
Similarly, Juneteenth as a celebration of black freedom is missing from the historical record of Sulphur Springs. If one culls through the archives at the library, it’s hard to find even a scrap of Juneteenth in print.
Its earliest mention in the News-Telegram is in 1920, when Governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson pardoned thirty African American inmates from the state penitentiary to memorialize the day.
The day wasn’t mentioned again in our newspaper until 1985, when a Juneteenth day drowning in Mexia got a blurb on third page. After that it went unnoticed in print for another 16 years until 2001, when the News-Telegram ran a picture of Miss Juneteenth queen Althea Walker.
In 2009, a new era of Juneteenth started in Sulphur Springs, according to Juneteenth committee president Prince Beachum.
“Our idea was to bring a group of people together to… help them understand that this was a celebration of our heritage, of when we were freed in 1865,” Beachum said.
Sulphur Springs community mobilized, Beachum said, to raise money, form a parade committee, elect a grand marshal, and “tell the whole story of Juneteenth.”
The parade group has t-shirts printed every year, and on the back text reads, “When the confederacy finally fell… slavery in Texas ended 30 months after the emancipation proclamation was signed– JUNETEENTH!”
According to Beachum, since news took so long to travel in the 1800s, it took 30 months from when the emancipation proclamation was signed until “we finally realized we were free,” Beachum said.
The 2009 event was a grassroots effort, Beachum said.
“I asked a couple of guys I was close with to get together with their pastors and try to get people on it,” he said. And the community wasn’t without its doubters.
“There were those who thought there was going to be a big ruckus, a fight or something,” he said. “But Juneteenth promotes unity within the community.”
After the success of the first year, the group continued to thrive, Beachum said. They hosted each subsequent year, and held their first parade, with the theme “Bringing Back Tha Fun,” in 2012.
The group appeared in print in the News-Telegram again for the first time that same year, 11 years after they were last seen in the periodical’s pages.
The event continues to grow, Beachum says. Visitors to the parade and grill out afterwards have come not only from all over Texas, but from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and even as far away as California.
The event celebrated its 10th year in 2019 with the theme “This Is It.” Beachum estimates that they fed over 1000 people, “not including the hotdogs we gave the kids.”
Community member Bam Jackson urged that Juneteenth shows “How far we’ve come as a nation.”
“It’s not over,” Beachum said. “It’s still happening. You look at the news every day and there’s killings and shootings of African Americans.”
However, Beachum said he’s hopeful about the message that Juneteenth brings to Sulphur Springs.
“It about everybody coming together as one, when we are free,” Beachum said. “Black history and American history, they’re the same thing.”
On September 23, 2022, the Hopkins County commissioners court voted unanimously to make Juneteenth a county holiday.
This article was first published in 2019. Shelli Beard contributed to this article.
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