East St. Louis native to host Juneteenth event that recognizes St. Louis’ racist past
For Antwoinette Ayers, standing outside of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis is a spiritual experience.
Ayers remembers praying at the courthouse last year and there being a cloud of smoke over her head. She says it represented the spirits of her ancestors. The Old Courthouse is where the Dred Scott case, in which it was decided that Black people weren’t American citizens, was tried and where slave auctions were held. The Courthouse is also near the site of Lynch’s slave pen that imprisoned slaves who were to be sold.
Ayers, an East St. Louis native, is very familiar with that racist history. And it’s why, for Juneteenth, she wants to bring awareness to the Black people whose lives were completely altered in that area.
“I wanted to do something in reverence to Juneteenth and educating our people on the land in St. Louis where slaves were sold in slave pens, about the Bernard Lynch slave pens in St. Louis, where Ballpark Village sits, where Hyatt Hotel aka Ruth’s Chris sits,” Ayers said.
“Those were all slave pens, so I wanted to make sure our people understand how deep in culture we are rooted here in the St. Louis area that people never talk about because you’ll never know, and so I wanted to pay homage to those who went before us in this area.”
On Saturday, Ayers will organize “On Their Shoulders,” a march that will feature a mesh of poetry, dancing, singing and prayers as participants stand in solidarity with the slaves who were sold at the courthouse. The march will start at noon at the Old Courthouse and will end with a flower release at the riverfront.
“On Their Shoulders” will also commemorate Juneteenth, a cultural holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It is named after June 19, 1865, the day when slaves in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom.
The march is one of the events included in Saturday’s Juneteenth Metro-East “Freedom in Equity” Festival, which will take place at various locations in East St. Louis. Ayers is the director of this year’s Juneteenth Metro-East committee.
‘Juneteenth means us’
Ayers said she came up with the idea to create the march after attending Juneteenth events in Memphis, Tennessee, and wanting to be a part of the celebrations in East St. Louis. This Saturday’s march will mark the second year for the event.
“Juneteenth means us,” Ayers said. “It means our history. It means the day of freedom for all. It means celebration on the shoulders that we stand on. It means collaboration with Metro-East Juneteenth Committee over here in East St. Louis. It means understanding our people have a right to be here. We have a right to celebrate. We have a right to rejoice because the future is looking better for those that are here. It means legacy.”
The event is hosted by Ayers’ film and production company, Visual Movements. Those interested in attending the event are encouraged to wear African garb. For Ayers, a content creator, that decision was intentional. She wants the event to be representative of the rich culture of Black people.
“Well, it’s a movement,” Ayers said. “You’re gonna see us. We want to be the lighthouse. That’s my motto is to be the lighthouse. So wherever we go, we represent the light, never the darkness, we wanna be shown to let people know that we are the light, we carry the light of God in us, the glory of God in us wherever we go.”
Ayers’ faith in God is what connected her to Jamie Shaw, another host of “On Their Shoulders.”
“We are sisters in Christ,” Shaw, 35, said about Ayers. “We’ve been knowing each other since we were little. We grew up in the same church that we still attend, which is Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church. We both had a very strong feeling about Juneteenth and the freedom of slaves and how we really had a different education here in the city that a lot of us didn’t know of besides what we were taught about in the school books.”
Juneteenth march to raise awareness
Shaw said she wasn’t aware of Juneteenth and the history of slavery in St. Louis until taking a history class at Illinois State University, where she attended college. She hopes Saturday’s event is mainly educational.
“A lot of people are not aware,” said Shaw, who lives in East St. Louis. “They’re just aware that it’s the courthouse, but they’re not aware that slaves were actually sold there. It’s a lot of our people’s blood that’s there at that courthouse. Our ancestors were not only sold and beat there, but their spirits are still there, and we feel that very, very strongly. I think it’s more important to educate ourselves about that because a lot of us don’t know it, and to be honest I didn’t know about it either.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed legislation that makes Juneteenth a federal holiday. Also this week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Juneteenth as a state holiday and that state offices will be closed on Friday.
Ayers said she’s happy about the national attention the holiday is receiving.
“The main objective is that we know (on) June 19, 1865, the last slaves from Galveston, Texas, were freed, so that meant all of our people were freed officially from slavery, and so the message will never be lost, no matter how we choose to celebrate it,” Ayers said. “The message still stands that our people are free and that we can carry on into glory and celebration. The world needs to know.”
Admission for Saturday’s event is free. Donations for flowers can be submitted here.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
