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Thousands of Bay Area residents came out for marches, speeches and outdoor revelry on Friday to celebrate Juneteenth at a time of growing awareness of — and public resistance to — the systemic racism and police violence Black Americans are subject to in the U.S.
The longshoremen’s union kicked off the day of renewed protests by shutting down the Port of Oakland for speeches by famed civil rights activist Angela Davis and actor Danny Glover, a San Francisco native. The action was in coordination with the closure of 29 West Coast ports. Protests and rallies were also held in San Jose and across the region for Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved Americans in Texas learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had set them free two years prior.
The marches come after three weeks of sustained demonstrations against racism and police violence in the Bay Area, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes, and of Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency room technician, shot to death in her own home in Louisville by police officers who forced their way in with a no-knock warrant.
The protests have already ignited a major debate about policing in the Bay Area. Menlo Park’s police chief announced his retirement during a town hall meeting where residents called out unequal treatment for residents of color, saying he had “lost the trust of the city council.” And in San Leandro, the city council voted earlier this week to pull $1.7 million from the city’s police budget.
Read our final story on the Junteenth marches and celebrations throughout the Bay Area here.
Update 8:45 p.m. — Celebrations continue into the night
People kept celebrating in Oakland into the evening, with music and fireworks near Lake Merritt and a couple hundred protesters that had lingered at deFremery Park in West Oakland. About 50 people were still at San Jose City Hall after a gathering at the nearby San Jose State University campus dispersed.
The celebrations, which are expected to go into the evening on Friday, were met with limited, if any, police presence — a stark difference from three weeks ago where multiple Bay Area cities and counties instituted curfews in response to clashes between police violence protesters and police officers.
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Update 8:10 p.m. — ‘It’s about having uncomfortable conversations’
Among the protesters in San Jose was Shay Franco-Clausen, 45, who last fall founded the organizing group Brave Space alongside some young activists.
“We wanted a space for young people to feel safe, we wanted a space for us to have partnerships with law enforcement and public officials. It isn’t about fighting hate with hate — it’s about having uncomfortable conversations and righting the wrongs,” she said. “That’s what today is about. It’s our celebration.”
And it was a celebration, with singing and music, as well as speeches about systemic racism and the history of slavery in America.
“Look at this crowd. This is the most Black people I’ve seen in months — and I only know ten of them,” she said.
Franco-Clausen, who is also an elected member of the Open Space Authority and serves on various local boards, was excited about the diverse of protesters, many of whom were not Black.
“People are recognizing their biases. We’re having conversations with our friends and they’re like, ‘I didn’t even know what Juneteenth was,’” she said. “To me, it’s an opportunity to open the doors and bring Black history here so people can see and understand.”
Update 6:55 p.m. — Celebrations continue across the Bay Area
Protesters kept marching in Oakland from deFremery Park through Adelaide Street, where residents came out of their homes to cheer. Along the way, they chanted and played music, including Freedom by Beyoncé, and Tell Me When To Go by East Bay rappers E-40 and Keak Da Sneak.
Roughly 100 people attended a 4 p.m. rally at Kaiser Oakland, on West MacArthur Boulevard and Broadway, organized by the California Nurses Association in solidarity with Black nurses, as well as the ILWU port work stoppage. Most nurses there gathered during the shift change between the day and night crews.
Hundreds also gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall earlier in the day for a Juneteenth rally, eventually marching to the San Francisco Unified School District headquarters on Franklin Street. Protesters there demanded the district end a contract with the San Francisco Police Department, according to NBC Bay Area reporter Jonathan Bloom.
And in Santa Clara County, where hundreds gathered throughout the day including for a march that went from Santa Clara University to San Jose State University, County Supervisor Dave Cortese announced a proposal to declare Juneteenth a countywide holiday starting next year.
Update 5:45 p.m. — Lake Merritt celebrations, singing at San Jose State
Hundreds of protesters who had marched from Santa Clara University gathered around the statues of former Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos at San Jose State University for speeches about redlining, the history of slavery and more. Smith and Carlos, former SJSU students, lifted their fists in a Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, a moment that is now seen as a key milestone in the civil rights movement but at the time made the two men the targets of vitriolic criticism and death threats.
People are crying throughout the crowd as one of the Black teen organizers sings Cynthia Erivo‘s “Stand Up” in front of SJSU’s statue of Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists pic.twitter.com/o7RwPIv0be
— Fiona Kelliher (@fiona_kelliher) June 20, 2020
In Oakland, as many as 1,000 people gathered at deFremery Park in West Oakland for a protest organized by Black Youth for the People’s Liberation, while others gathered nearby for what appear to be Juneteenth parties.
“West Oakland has a significant Black history that has impacted not just this city but the entire world,” activist Isha Clarke, 17, said to demonstrators. “It continues to be a powerful hub of Blackness today.”
The park is known as Bobby Hutton park in honor of Hutton, who at 16 became the first recruit and treasurer of the Black Panther Party in 1966. In 1968 he was killed by Oakland Police Department officers while attempting to surrender after a shootout between members of the party and police officers.
“White supremacy is not sustainable. Neither is colonialism or capitalism,” Clarke said. “All the crises we are experiencing right now are happening because our society does not value human lives.”
Very tiny children are leading the crowd in this chant. pic.twitter.com/ubYLLupGM1
— Annie Sciacca (@AnnieSciacca) June 20, 2020
The Juneteenth celebrations extended to Lake Merritt, where a couple of thousand people gathered for dancing, music and games. Some took photos in front of a pop-up mural and flower arrangement that spelled “Afrika,” while others stood in line at a booth selling funnel cakes and garlic fries.
Update 4:30 p.m. — ‘Figure out what you stand for’
Nayo LaFreniere, who was at the march in San Jose — which her teenage daughter, Phoenix, helped organize — said the confluence of the pandemic, economic crisis and the graphic videos of Floyd’s death all built to these protests.
“Now they can see, they can be on the same level as those who have been here for a while, and understand our plight,” LaFreniere said.
For LaFreniere, who grew up in East Oakland, her daughter helping organize the protest falls into a family tradition of activism — LaFreniere’s father was a member of the Black Panthers.
“I’m excited because I was her age when the Rodney King beating happened and I was leaving for college in LA,” she said. “It’s that time in your life when you want to figure out what you stand for and what you don’t stand for and I love that she’s having that progression into activism because it’s the perfect time now.”
Update 4:10 p.m. — ‘Black joy is radical’
Among the demonstrators in Oakland was Wangui Hymes, 26, a Berkeley resident who came with housemates and friends because they’ve been getting involved in demonstrations in support of Black Lives recently and wanted to “to be out there with the people.”
Hymes was encouraged by the speakers at the Port of Oakland, which included life-long activists and union leaders, but after years of not seeing Juneteenth celebrated, she’s a little wary of the day’s increased visibility.
“I saw that Google had put it in my calendar today. I sort of rolled my eyes … it seemed almost disingenuous, like, do you really care?” she said. “It’s easy to say the word, but harder to put into practice. To face all this day represents.”
Hymes hopes that Juneteenth will be as prominent in the coming years as it is now, and in the meantime she’s enjoying the day’s celebratory mood.
“I just really think Black joy is radical,” Hymes said. “Seeing people smiling, celebrating, sharing hand sanitizer, sharing food — it just feels really radical.”
Update 3:40 p.m. — Teens lead march to San Jose; in Oakland, calls for a national holiday
In San Jose, a joyful, boisterous crowd that grew to about 500 marched from Santa Clara University to San Jose State University, over 3 miles, following a pick-up truck with a Black Lives Matter sign on the back. They marched to chants of “No justice, no peace” and “What is silence? Violence.” Demonstrators also carried signs reading “Black trans lives matter,” “Vintage dresses not vintage values!” and “Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color.”
Before the march set off, an officer from the Santa Clara Police Department welcomed the demonstrators to the city and said that he was happy the department could help facilitate the Juneteenth march.
About 200 people are gathered for a 3.5ish-mile #JUNETEENTH2020 march from Santa Clara University to #sanjose city hall. pic.twitter.com/DzlQ70a6th
— Maggie Angst (@MaggieAngst) June 19, 2020
Speaking at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee from New Jersey, called for Juneteenth to be recognized as a national holiday. He told a couple thousand protesters, the crowd dwindling from earlier in the day, that he was once held against the brick wall of his home by a police officer because he “looked suspicious,” something he said wouldn’t have happened if he was white.
Smalls, who is Black, said he was fired two hours after holding a protest outside his workplace to complain about the lack of masks or other protective supplies.
“They didn’t give a damn about my life,” he said.
Update: 2:30 p.m. — Boots Riley and bike protesters
Oakland activist, rapper and director Boots Riley spoke to cheering demonstrators at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, urging them to see the power people have when they protest and drawing parallels to large-scale demonstrations during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
“People are at a point like, ‘Ok how the f— do we do this,’” he said. “A lot of that question is a question of power. What is power, how does it work, what is our power. And this is what today is answering because our power comes from the fact we create the wealth, wealth is power, we have the ability to withhold that power, we have the ability to withhold our people. Shut s— down.”
He suggested a shutdown of West Coast ports, like the one organized for Juneteenth, could be held until a set of public demands were met, adding to boisterous cheering that he’d heard workers at the Tesla factory in Fremont might join in a work stoppage.
“What is power? How does it work? What is our power? That’s what today is answering. Our power comes from the fact that we create the wealth. Wealth is power. We have the ability to withhold that power,” Boots Riley says to the crowd here in Oakland. #JUNETEENTH2020 pic.twitter.com/uRZvFc2NJn
— East Bay Times (@EastBayTimes) June 19, 2020
Also speaking at the plaza — often known as Oscar Grant Plaza in honor of a 22-year-old Black man killed by BART police in 2009 — was Grant’s uncle Cephus X Johnson, known as Uncle Bobby.
“Let’s not this be the last time we come together to speak out,” he said, before leading a 15-second moment of silence.
Elsewhere, protesters on bicycles rallied at the Alameda Police Department, where one speaker said “we’re in a toxic relationship with America.” Protesters also led chants of “Say his name, Dujuan Armstrong.” Armstrong, a 23-year-old Black man, was killed after Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies put him in a restraining device that included a spit hood, which asphyxiated him.
Organizers passed out water bottles before directing everyone to a nearby sandwich shop that organizers said is owned by a Black woman.
Update: 1:45 p.m. — Oakland crowd marches to city hall
A jubilant crowd of marchers made their way down Broadway toward city hall, lead by motorcycles — including some members of the legendary East Bay Dragons, the Bay Area’s first black motorcycle club. After a moment of silence on 7th Street and Broadway in memory of people killed by police officers, the march resumed with chants of “no justice, no peace.”
In front of Oakland’s city hall, a couple of dozen drummers played in front of protesters, and elsewhere marcher’s played remixes of “Blow the Whistle” by Oakland rapper Too $hort.
https://twitter.com/jcfphotog/status/1274076274432937986?s=20
The mood matched the feeling in San Jose, where speakers in front of city hall decried over-policing of Black Americans.
“I’m here because Juneteenth is a celebration. I want this to be joyful. I want this to be fun,” said rally organizer Adia Hoag. “This year I think it’s even more resonant because people are paying attention. Normally it would be a block party, this is a citywide party.”
YouthHype's LaToya Fernandez: “When black and brown kids are acting up in schools, they’re responding to trauma that comes from systematic racism. So when you lock them up, what’s you’re saying is the ‘what’ is more important than the ‘why.’” #sanjose #JuneteenthDay pic.twitter.com/yOM6bcVkzQ
— Maggie Angst (@MaggieAngst) June 19, 2020
Update: 1:00 p.m. — Activists and civil rights leaders rally at the Port of Oakland and in downtown San Jose
Addressing a crowd of a few thousand from her dark grey Mini Cooper, activist, college professor and philosopher Angela Davis praised the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for their port work stoppage. She spoke from her car wearing a mask to maintain social distance, and union leaders monitored the crowd to make sure participants kept on their masks.
“We are still on the long road to freedom,” she said. “Whenever the ILWU takes a stand, the world feels the reverberations.”
Davis, who has long written about prison abolition and spent time in jail before being acquitted of charges of kidnapping and murder, said Juneteenth was a time to “renew our commitment to the struggle for freedom.”
“Yes to abolishing the police as we know them, reimagining the meaning of safety and security,” she said.
Actor Danny Glover called in to the protest, urging young protesters to “use this power and get it done. It’s not going to be tomorrow, it’s not going to be next month, it’s going to be a long time.”
Meanwhile, about 100 protesters on bicycles gathered in West Oakland with plans to gather downtown, where other protesters were playing music and setting up water stations ahead of anticipated demonstrations.
In the South Bay, about 100 people gathered for a Hype the Youth rally outside the Santa Clara County building against the incarceration of young people. Speakers included a formerly incarcerated person, a local community education activist and a student whose Milpitas High School teacher wore blackface to school late last year to imitate rapper and activist Common.
