LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Major fallout on social media forced organizers of a Juneteenth celebration to rethink a controversial plan.
A flyer released this week telling people to save the date for “Louteenth” didn’t go over well with the public. Now the event is being reinstated as Juneteenth, and the organizers are using the controversy as a teaching moment.
“I had 42 different notifications of 42 different people tagging me in different posts,” activist and author Aprile Hearn said.
The backlash was swift, when people saw the “Louteenth” flyer with new colors. “And the community didn’t take to that well.”
Words like “disgusted” and “tone deaf” filled the comment section.
“I know that this event may look like that the city has put their hands on it, and that it’s white washed or that Lynn Stadium is taking over I wanted to make it very clear that that was not the case,” said Hearn.
The event’s organizers said their intent was to make the flyer feel like a personal invite to all, but after the outcry, they dropped the “LOU” and restored the festival’s original Juneteenth name.
“At that time when the name change happened, honestly, we were just trying to be a little bit more involved with the Louisville community and just make sure everybody has the opportunity to experience such a wonderful event,” explained Juan Lambert with the Juneteenth Festival
The event from June 12 to 15 will be hosted a Lynn Family Stadium, and it’s separate from the Juneteenth event hosted by Metro Government. A spokesperson told WDRB the city will share more details about its event in the coming weeks.
Dr. Jemar Tisby from Simmons College of Kentucky explained why so many people are so passionate about Juneteenth, which is now a federal holiday.
“It represents the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Galveston Texas first heard of their emancipation,” Tisby said.
He said the upset about the colors used on the flyer was also a break with tradition. “Often times, people use the colors of the Pan African flag — the black the green the red, but in fact, Juneteenth colors are red, white and blue. That was intentional to convey the fact that Black people are Americans.”
Tisby hopes the controversy will allow people to learn more about the national holiday.
“Now we get to have the opportunity to go back and say ‘now why is it significant that it is Juneteenth and it remains Juneteenth?’ And we get to talk about all that history and all that tradition all over again,” Tisby said.
Details on the event can be found at LouisvilleJuneteenth.com.
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