Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

This weekend’s Juneteenth festivities will begin with an educational tour called the “Freedom to Prosperity Trail” of downtown that highlights the success and struggles of the Black community in Washington. Starting with the history of the Underground Railroad then moving further into town to discuss prominent people and places, participants will learn about the progression of Black history over the last century. 

“The Underground Railroad represents the slavery aspect and the freedom of the slaves and their struggle to free themselves along with the help of others. So, once gaining that freedom, they take this journey through town to their land of prosperity,” Alice Sadler, event organizer and executive director of the Washington Housing Authority said. 

The trail, also being called a parade, will begin the weekend festivities. Participants will begin lining up at 2 p.m., but the parade begins at 3 p.m. The parade will not go down Main Street, but instead head to Beebe Memorial Park by using Gladden Street. Sadler recommends parade viewers line up along Gladden Street past Bill’s Hot Dogs.

Guests will learn about “trailblazers in the city” like Hull Anderson, Anthony Tyre, chairman of the City of Washington’s Human Relations Council described.  

“Just the idea of celebrating a lot of the African-American history that’s here in the county and city – a lot of that I didn’t know growing up and a lot of it has been lost. So, being able to have this celebration while highlighting a lot of the trailblazers is absolutely amazing,” Tyre said. 

Some of those “trailblazers” are; Hull Anderson, Bishop Beebe and Dr. Dowdy. 

In the 1840’s, Anderson was a prominent shipwright, landowner, businessman and former enslaved man in Washington who helped purchase the freedom of several enslaved people including his wife and daughter. Anderson employed former enslaved people, and was a sponsor of the American Colonization Society who helped former enslaved people emigrate back to Liberia. In 1841, Anderson sold his home and moved to Liberia, according to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

Guests will also learn about Bishop Beebe who was the first bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. Congregants of First Methodist Church in Washington gave land to freed slaves to help them build a church which later became Beebe Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of Respess and Fifth Streets, according to Sadler. 

Tour guests will hear about Dr. Haywood Nathaniel Dowdy (1900-1986), the only African-American dentist in Beaufort County, a title he keeps posthumously, Sadler shared. Dowdy practiced in Washington for more than 50 years. He was also the first Black man appointed to the Washington City School board during segregation, according to a column by Leesa Jones, executive director of the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad. 

Guests will learn much more on the tour, but Sadler hopes they will see the “tremendous contributions and the struggle” of the local Black community. 

Sadler said it’s important to share Washington’s African-American heritage with minority children, because oftentimes, they pass historic historic sites and buildings but do not know it. 

“Minority children don’t know this history. They walk past it everyday and they don’t know it. They don’t know that this house meant anything to anybody. Right now, it’s just an old house that’s falling down,” Sadler said.  “If we can’t salvage these buildings, we at least need to be in a position to tell the children and tell the community their significance while we’re here and while they’re still standing.” 

Parlaying into why Juneteenth should be celebrated, Sadler explained that “in the hearts of many blacks, this is when America really became free, because now everybody had freedom.” 

June 19 is known as Juneteenth, because on June 19, 1865, almost two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union Troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas letting the last enslaved people in the United States know they were free. 

This year’s Juneteenth festivities will take place at Beebe and P.S. Jones Memorial Parks located at 1101 N. Bridge Street in Washington. The parade will kick off the two-day event. On Saturday from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Ruffin Keys and Trainwreck will perform live. On Sunday, from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. there will be a live performance by The Monteiro Experience. On both days there will be family-friendly field day activities, games, rides, a free throw competition with prizes and inflatable water slides. The first 100 children at the park will receive a free Kona Ice treat. 

Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, but not tents nor coolers.