EUGENE – Walking into the Farmer’s Market Pavilion last Thursday, one could see the harmony of BLAQ Youth’s second-annual 2025 Juneteenth Community Gathering.
Music swelled around the building while joyous participants, old and young, danced across the stage. Vibrant greens, reds, and yellows dotted the exhibits and the vendors’ booths. Outside, a drum circle appeared with a steady beat, kids whizzing around with toys as the savory smells from the food trucks wafted through the area.
“It is a passion for me to be a part of these celebrations and help curate spaces that bring people together,” said Shanaè Joyce-Stringer, lead event coordinator and president of BLAQ Youth. “This is really a labor of love. It is a volunteer, totally volunteer-based opportunity, and I’m glad that there are other people besides me.”
Shanaè Joyce-Stringer
The family-focused event featured a youth zone with crafts and educational materials and an elder space called “Melanin Oasis.” It also saw a variety of performances, including fitness activities, local talent, and a presentation on the history of Juneteenth. The gathering also featured local organizations and Black-owned businesses.
BLAQ Youth, founded by Joyce-Stringer in 2023, is a Eugene nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and uplifting African-American/Black youth and families. BLAQ stands for “Believer, Leader, and Conqueror,” the values the group reflects.
BLAQ Youth adopted Eugene’s Juneteenth gathering last year when the 2024 event was cancelled due to a lack of funding.
Though BLAQ Youth has become the new host of the gathering, Joyce-Stringer said it fits within the next steps of the organization.
“It just seems like such a right fit for all the work that we do throughout the year to be inclusive of Juneteenth,” she said. She noted BLAQ Youth is “an organization that exists to encourage youth in Lane County, especially Black, biracial, multi ethnic youth, to really take pride in their Identity and really have a strong connection to their history and their heritage.”
BLAQ Youth among other local organizations collaborated on the event. ALL PHOTOS BY CRAIG STROBECK. 
A local vendor displays his Juneteenth pride. 
A steady drum circle appeared amid the gathering, with more joining in later. 
The Black Cultural Initiative is another organization that serve Lane County’s Black population. 
Attendees honor a decorated carriage, a historical marker of Juneteenth. 
The decorated carriage follows the legacy of Black Texans celebrating Juneteenth with style. 
The event gave Black-owned businesses a chance to display its products and handmade goods. 
Performances included local DJs, bands, and solo vocalists.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth, federally recognized since 2021 as a holiday, recognizes the official end of slavery in the United States. Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, 160 years ago, on June 19, 1865, and freed the remaining 250,000 slaves. It was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Following the Civil War, some slave owners refused to free their slaves and kept them unaware of the Proclamation.
Juneteenth – a combination of June 19th – celebrates the liberation from slavery and the symbolic abolition of Black commodification. It acknowledges the broader injustices that Black people have experienced throughout history. It runs parallel to July 4, another emancipation celebration.
Lane County’s past
At the Juneteenth Gathering, there was a section in the corner featuring stand-up colored boards of historical information. Each board revealed Black history in Eugene and Lane County.
Amid the swelling voices and songs, many attendees took a moment to read the boards, and some gasped and pointed at familiar landscapes tainted with a knowledge of a sour historical backdrop.
“That’s also a big part of BLAQ Youth work,” Joyce-Stringer said. “Bringing about recognition of American history, which is Black history.”
Oregon’s early state exclusion clause prohibited Black people from living, making contracts, and owning property in the state. Still, Black people lived in Springfield and east Lane County dating back to at least the 1880s, according to the Springfield History Museum.
In 1900, representing Cottage Grove was 24-year-old Annie Eusted. She was born in Oregon and was the wife of a logger. In 1930, Andrew and Lee Wetleau moved to Lowell and purchased property. Andrew “plowed and hauled for farmers in the area, and Lee cooked for railroad workers.” They eventually ran a boarding house. Also in Lowell was 20-year-old John McClain, along with George Simmons and John Bedford. They all worked for the National Railroad.
For Springfield, in recent memory, there was Austin Ray, who moved from Portland in 1981. He was the first Black leader of the Ebbert Memorial Methodist Church in Springfield. Jesse Maine moved to Springfield and was elected the first Black City Councilor in 1992.
“I ran for mayor last year,” Joyce-Stringer said. “One of the comments I received was that ‘I am not part of the community.’ And they couldn’t tell me why. But I knew what they were trying to say. It just speaks to the fact that there’s still so much more progress to be made, not just for tolerating diverse members of the community … accepting that they are here and they’re part of this community. They contribute to this community. They put in their dollars, their time, and their energy. … We are grateful for those first families who paved the way for diverse communities to come here, for Black people to even come here.”
