Juneteenth Banner FEATURING White Couple In South Carolina SPARKS MASSIVE BACKLASH | Roland Martin

In South Carolina, the Juneteenth celebration organizer apologizes after receiving backlash for banners featuring white and Latino people.

Rueben Hays, the executive director of Juneteenth Greenville, initially defended the banners, saying they intentionally represented a varied spectrum of races. Here's what he said in the Greenville News.

"Juneteenth is about celebrating freedom, celebration culture through music, food, art. Freedom is worth celebrating, I think we can all agree about that. I've celebrated the Fourth of July all my life, it's the most American thing you can do, right? But that Independence Day did not include all Americans, and until all of us were free, were we really free? That's why education about the history of Juneteenth is so important. It represents the complete freeing of America.

Hayes was asked:
What do you say to people who don't look like you, people who may be reluctant, who might feel like it's not their holiday to celebrate?

Like that it is a "Black holiday." celebrated because it was a Black thing that happened? But in order for this holiday to ever come, half a million Americans had to die in the Civil War. If you really know the history or really understand it, there's no denying that this is one the most significant holidays in our nation's history. The most American holiday. It's just that it happened to be on the back of African American slaves and some folks just don't want to make that connection or association. But that's just the fact of the matter. I mean it s a very American holiday.

Later Hays called the banners depicting non-Black faces a mistake and apologized to the community.

"We would like to offer an apology to the community for the presence of non-black faces being represented on two flags representing Juneteenth. We acknowledge this mistake having been made and will correct the error quickly. This error was an attempt at uniting all of Greenville and thereby a slight oversight on one individual's part that prevented us from fully embracing the rich potential and celebrating the depth of the black culture through the message and meaning of Juneteenth, and for that we apologize to you the entire community. The flags in question will be removed as soon as possible."

The Juneteenth celebration will run from June 10 to 17.


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