Volunteers prepared the historic 24th Street in Omaha, Nebraska for this year’s Juneteenth parade. Frankie Jean Williams, the chair of the Omaha NAACP Juneteenth celebration committee, was most looking forward to seeing the city’s first elected Black mayor in the lineup. He started his term 10 days before the holiday.
“It’s a sense of pride,” she said. “I was thinking about the lineup, and normally, we do state and then county and local officials. So it’s a wonderful opportunity to show young people the value of their vote.”
Williams wanted newly elected mayor John Ewing Jr. to sit in a convertible for the June 14 parade, held before the June 19 holiday, but she knew he’d probably want to walk to interact with residents.
“Just to see him sitting there at that moment I’m sure, for my generation, will bring some tears, because you couldn’t have told a lot of people that this would ever happen,” she said.
Democrat Ewing won the mayoral election of Nebraska’s largest city against 12-year Republican incumbent Jean Stothert. Omaha NAACP branch president T. Michael Williams said this year’s celebration is a “watershed moment,” and that the whole city, not just African Americans, are excited about the new mayor.
“The state of Nebraska, the city of Omaha, honestly, has not always been kind to Black people, and so the fact that we came close to having a Black mayor 20 some years ago, didn’t quite make it, and now we do. I think it’s a great opportunity for us as a city to move forward in an inclusive way,” he said.
And Ewing said he’s excited to represent the city where he was born and raised this year in the celebration. The former county treasurer-turned-mayor is from North Omaha, an area with a large Black population.
“If you look at the significance of Juneteenth from that perspective, then you look at the fact that I’m the first Black mayor in the history of Omaha, and tie those two things together, it’s really very symbolic,” the Omaha mayor said. “It shows a significant amount of progress in our country and in this city in particular.”
Ewing said his election has reinvigorated Omaha’s Juneteenth celebration and he believes Omaha can set an example for the nation in acknowledging American history and making everyone feel they belong.
“Instead of running from our history, instead of trying to take away from what actually happened in America, we need to embrace it, and then we need to learn the lessons from it,” Ewing said.
He added he hopes he’s not just a role model for kids who look like him, but he hopes he can also show kids who don’t look like him that a city can be led by a Black man.
“We can be like the rest of the country and have all of the fighting and all of the anger and have that be counterproductive, or we can look at how we can be great together, and that’s the only way Omaha is going to be as great as it can be, is if we’re all in this thing together,” he added.
But some of that national tension has leaked into Omaha’s celebration. Frankie Jean Williams said some sponsors from previous years backed out from their support of Juneteenth due to the Trump administration’s push for diversity, equity and inclusion rollbacks.
“It wasn’t surprising,” she said. “It was a way out for them. They were doing something that they didn’t want to do in the first place, and it just shows true colors. And I definitely want people to know who pulled out who and I want people to know who stayed.”
Frankie Jean Williams said this was the largest parade in terms of participants, though. Organizers had 158 entries, including the elected officials and the sponsors. 5,600 people were in the parade lineup. And she has no plans to stop growing. Branch President T. Michael Williams said he noticed more people than ever viewing the parade.
The parade isn’t the only celebration that saw regular sponsors pull out. Community-building events organization Freedomtainment’s Operation Manager Calvin Williams organizes the Omaha Freedom Festival, the event following the parade, at the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation.
“When Trump got into office, the funding had changed immediately, and we saw and we’re feeling the impact now,” he said.
Calvin Williams clarified he would do this work for free, but that’s not realistic – and he and his nonprofit still need funding to provide necessary services like job connections, health information, housing resources and mental health support.
Freedomtainment will host a job and housing fair called Level Up, where CeeLo Green will perform on Aug. 30. All of that, Calvin Williams added, does cost money to put on a free event the community needs.
The Trump administration has cracked down on DEI programs, saying they are “illegal” and discriminatory.
Committee Chair Frankie Jean Williams said she can foresee a day when Juneteenth is no longer considered a federal holiday, and that would make her work even more poignant.
“I’m waiting for the current administration to say it’s not a holiday and have been thinking about what, what will we do? You can’t take our history away from us, whether it’s a holiday or not,” she said.
June 19 was declared a federal holiday in 2021 under former President Joe Biden. But even before that designation, Omaha celebrated the day the last enslaved people in Confederate states were told about their freedom. NAACP branch President T. Michael Williams said his organization has hosted the parade since the 1980s, but Omaha has celebrated going back to the 1890s.
And organizers promised they’ll continue to do so, especially with the support from the new mayor.