AMHERST — “Left-Left-Left-Left-Right-Left!”

Shaking off the rain that canceled Saturday’s Ancestral Bridges’ Juneteenth walking tour, the legendary all-Black Peter Grace 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of Civil War fame began their march in the backyard of the Amherst Woman’s Club and made their steady way through the crowded house. People of many colors and persuasions craned their necks and whooped from hallways, outer rooms and halfway upstairs.

“HALT!” commanded First Lt. Ronald Brace. “Left face!”

And the troop, celebrating its 160th year, took seats by the podium as emcee and Amherst native William Harris, president and CEO of the Houston Space Center, proclaimed Juneteenth, the 1863 day when America’s slaves were emancipated, as “bringing people together from across the country to create a better life.”

Then slowly entered the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, led by Jacqui Wallace, with “We Shall Overcome,” segueing seamlessly into a be-bop gospel version of the song, leading to much seat-dancing. Who knew that overcoming could be so joyous?

“We never had such a crowd,” said Woman’s Club President Senaida Bautista, who offered the building when weather threatened. “Not in 130 years. Forty people came in the shuttle. We had no idea how many would show up and then they just kept on coming. It’s been an honor to have them.”

Teacher and activist Carlie Tartakov called Juneteenth “America’s second Independence Day. Now we gotta keep on keeping on and make a way for those who came AFTER you.”

Former state representative and retired judge Jim Collins spoke of modern-day hero Donald Brown, who started Upward Bound.

“He saved lives … and he had a backbone,” Collins said. “No institution could push him back or put him over.”

Emcee Harris spoke of his great-grandfather, Robert Gilbert Roberts, an internationally known jazz musician once lauded at the Newport Jazz Festival and who lived to 106, the main reason why Harris himself set off to see the world.

Of the Hazel Avenue neighborhood he hails from, once part of the segregated section of Amherst and a stark reminder of the town’s complicated past, Harris said, “Gary Roberts Senior came from Maryland and built a house there. Then his brother Arthur built next door, then sister Annie next door to that. They were redlined. There were ordinances that no Black people could live on Amity Street or streets nearby. Our mother, when she was in high school, was identified for a D.A.R scholarship but was denied because she was Black. But the school principal stood up and said no one is getting a scholarship — we don’t want your money until you change your practices.

“This was 1945! She worked as a maid on streets where she couldn’t live, the first member of our family to go to college. She went on to teach in Springfield’s schools, another thing she was told was impossible.”

As much of the message of Juneteenth is embracing the future, the past is of equal or greater importance. Kamal Ali, urban educator and professor emeritus at Westfield State University, decried “Black veterans since 1776 coming home to lynchings, beatings and immolation. We were growing up with this!”

Of the attack on the Capitol after President Donald Trump’s election defeat: “Never underestimate the power of white rage. Trump did not cause the turmoil but he’s surfing the wave,” Ali said.

The ‘A-Team’

In his far-reaching talk, Ali referred constantly to what he called the “A-Team,” the Amherst represented in this very house, a young/old, multi-hued activist mix.

“This may be our last opportunity for this great country before we slip into fascism. America has a high tolerance for violence and oppression. We got more guns than people. They have taken our truth and turned it upside down. But our A-Team is committed, educated and energized,” he said.

In his earliest days at UMass, with the horns of Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef driving his thoughts, Ali was young and impatient for change. His group was expecting a visit by a white woman from Northampton. Ali was incredulous.

“Where are all the Black people at? Where are the young white radicals? Well that white woman from Northampton turned out to be Frances Crowe,” said Ali.

“Yes!” sighed many in the crowd. Thus sparked a working relationship between Crowe and Ali that lasted until her death in 2019 at 100.

“She talked about everything that was right,” he said. “We can’t just know what’s going on — we need to do something about it!”

“Our history is often stolen,” said Denise Jordan of the Springfield Housing Authority. “Our history is so rich, but so often rewritten. But people fought for Juneteenth, and we’re still here and we’re educated. Bring it, we’ll take it, and keep on moving!” she cried, to the crowd’s approval.

“I grew up in the history,” said Ancestral Bridges founder Anika Lopes, a sixth-generation Black and Indigenous Amherst native. “My ancestors — I can hear them, I can smell them. My ancestors delivered the Emancipation Proclamation to plantations in Texas.”

Lopes asked descendants of slaves who left plantations to settle in Amherst to stand up and half the house did so.

“History, though uncomfortable, gives us understanding as to what can be done about the future,” Lopes said.

A hatmaker herself, Lopes was surprised to recently learn about Black entrepreneur Henry Jackson, whose millinery business employed hundreds of Black people in the 1800s.

She had “no idea,” she said. Her hope for Ancestral Bridges? “That our youth will know the deep roots they’re connected to in Amherst.”

Then some new history, the unveiling of a street sign recognizing Hazel Avenue as the West Side Historical District.

Said state Rep. Mindy Domb: “There are horrible chapters in our history. And history can also be silenced. This is a day to confront our past. A simple street sign can create space to remember. Juneteenth is about remembering, confronting and moving forward together.”

Living history

The 54th Massachusetts marched out and the choir sang “ironically” about peace, and the rain let up a little and three young kids were playing on the back steps, one of them toot-tooting on an “air” fife. Their grandfather, Private Sheldon Griffin of Springfield, is known as the sharpshooter of the 54th.

“When we got the muskets, I really took to it,” he said. “I can reload and fire four or five times in one minute. Reload it, pop the paper, ram it down, full bore accurate.”

Aside from events like this, the brigade also recreates battles with Confederate troops, largely unscripted. “Yeah, you fall and get dragged off,” he smiled. “You got shot, you got shot; you got bayoneted, you got bayoneted.”

Griffin got into living history years ago when he found out he was related to Peter Brace himself, a private in the 54th, the first U.S. regiment made up entirely of people of color. Brace was wounded in 1864 at the Battle of Honey Hill.

“It’s just natural to represent your family,” Griffin said. “When you can march and speak to the masses, it’s like a weight off your chest — look, my history’s being spoken. They didn’t teach this stuff in school. I didn’t know my family fought in the Civil War. These are people that I’m part of.”

An indelible memory? The inauguration of Barack Obama. “We were the unit that marched in front of him,” said Pvt. Griffin. “It was beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.”

Harris was again reminded of Gary Roberts Senior, “a slave on the Lyle plantation in Maryland, same plantation as Frederick Douglass.” Anyone who wanted to join the Union Army would be set free. So he signed up. Roberts’ likeness appears on the famed Amherst Community mural.

Many folks at the event were descendants of the Thompson brothers, interred in the same West Cemetery as Emily Dickinson. Harris recently came up with a find, thanks to a friend who hunts anything 1860s.

“People used to hide stuff in picture frames,” Harris said. “It’s a letter written by Charles Thompson to his sister Mary, my great-grandmother. He was in training for the cavalry. What’s super cool is that one side of it is a recruiting flyer, a public relations piece to get people jazzed up for the war. Charles wrote a letter on the other side, telling what it means to be able to fight for that cause.”

Many of the young parents in the crowd soon repaired to The Drake, joining a large contingent of little kids at a performance by Grammy-nominated recording artist Divinity Roxx. After having fun rhyming just about anything the kids threw at her, the irrepressible Roxx put in a plug for reading, reminding her audience that the more words you know, the better rapper you’ll become.

“But laughter, that’s what it’s about,” she sang. “Hanging with my mom, my dad tells a joke, and it goes on and on and on …. A big laugh, ya gotta love it, ya wish that you could hug it. When you’re feelin’ down or feelin’ bad, ya wish your laugh would come around and make ya glad.”

“And when the world gets me down, I’m LOL-ing right out loud!”

Juneteenth can do that to a person. The day ended with moving and gospel-grooving with Shirley Jackson Whitaker at Hope Community Church.

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