White Plains Juneteenth: An Interview with Jonette Mines and Darryl J. Jenkins
Interview with Jonette Mines, President of White Plains Juneteenth Heritage Inc. and Darryl J. Jenkins, Co-Founder of the White Plains Juneteenth Heritage Festival and Parade
Aaron Paige (AP): Please share a little about the history of Juneteenth in White Plains. How did you come to be the first City to organize a Juneteenth celebration in Westchester County?
Darryl J. Jenkins (DJ): We started back in 2004, meeting as an organization and we wanted to have a legacy for our community and the people of White Plains. We wanted everybody, of all races and creeds and color, to understand what Juneteenth was really about. It was about creating a legacy and teaching the history. We sat down with the Director of the Slater Center, Mr. Charlie Booth as well as Mr. Ron Jackson, a community leader and activist, to discuss having some kind of African American heritage parade. We thought about Dr. King, and representing him, but that would have fallen in the winter time. We wanted to do something outdoors in the summer. We contacted a friend of mine who lived in Daytona Beach who was organizing a Juneteeth celebration and he provided us with some basic history about the festival and how they were organizing it. This was very helpful. My friend in Florida covered a lot of bases for us that we would never been able to cover.
Jonette Mines (JM): Mayor Joseph Delfino was the Mayor at the time and he was the one who announced the formation of the first White Plains Juneteenth Committee. Councilman Glen Hockley, also played an important role in supporting the initial organizing of Juneteenth in White Plains.
AP: What do you feel makes the White Plains Juneteenth celebration unique and special to White Plains? What is it about this celebration that you most cherish?
JM: We are the trailblazers and we started Juneteenth in 2004, as Darryl said. It included everyone from the community. It was great to see a diverse group of people, all nationalities coming out to support us and see the parade and the festival and to learn and understand what Juneteenth is all about. For me, it’s about seeing everyone come together, raising the flag for everyone to see, and of course the entertainment. Our stilt walkers! They are really exciting to see!
DJ: Me, myself, I like the parade. White Plains always had some good parades back in the day. Macy’s used to put on a parade in White Plains before they opened the New Rochelle Macys. Our Juneteenth parade was always one of the bigger parades in the City and the County…I always look forward to that.
AP: Who are some of the most memorable honorees and entertainers you invited to the celebration in the past?
JM: Former governor David Patterson was one of our honorees. Andrea Stuart Cousins. The Mayor of White Plains. We had Jennifer Holiday one year performing. Kurtis Blow performed.
DJ: Kurtis Blow performed at the very first Juneteenth. We also had the Tuskegee Airmen come over. That was really awesome. Earl Graves was one of our honorees from Black Enterprise. We’ve been so blessed to have these great people be a part of our parade and festival.
AP: What significance does Juneteenth have to you personally?
JM: The excitement and appreciation of the ending of slavery and letting our people and community know what the holiday is all about. We’ve been going through a pandemic since 1619. Now we’re up to 400+ years it’s like going full circle. For me, it’s about letting people understand that we’ve come this far by faith, but we still have a ways to go.
DJ: I’m taken aback. You are so right. The important part is the education and the history. A lot of people, Black and White, didn’t know what Juneteenth was about. When we started doing this, it was great to see people wanting to know more about Juneteenth… to find out about the history and how it came about. This is a time when people come together, rejoice, have fun and learn at the same time.
AP: What is White Plains Juneteenth Heritage planning for 2021?
JM: We have a virtual event planned for this year on Saturday June 12th. We’re going to have an ancestral prayer. We’re going to have the singing of the Negro National Anthem and the National Anthem. We’re gonna have a performance by Samara Joy, the jazz vocalist. Heather Miller, Executive Director of the Slater Center and a member of White Plains Juneteenth Heritage started writing poetry during the COVID pandemic. She is going to recite her poem ‘Mama Africa’. And we will be honoring our Grand Marshall, Wayne Bass, Commissioner of Parks and Recreation for the City of White Plains. We are also going to show footage from past parades and festivals to give people an idea of what we normally do to celebrate. And it’s all going to be also shown on White Plains Public Access Cable…on Fios and White Plains cable Channel 75. It will also be screened live on the White Plains Juneteenth Heritage Facebook page.
About ArtsWestchester
For more than 50 years, ArtsWestchester has been the community’s connection to the arts. Founded in 1965, it is the largest private not-for-profit arts council in New York State. Its mission is to create an equitable, inclusive, vibrant and sustainable Westchester County in which the arts are integral to and integrated into every facet of life. ArtsWestchester provides programs and services that enrich the lives of everyone in Westchester County. ArtsWestchester helps fund concerts, exhibitions and plays through grants; brings artists into schools and community centers; advocates for the arts; and builds audiences through diverse marketing initiatives. In 1998, ArtsWestchester purchased the nine-story neo-classical bank building at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue which has since been transformed into a multi-use resource for artists, cultural organizations and the community. A two-story gallery is located on the first floor of ArtsWestchester’s historic building on Mamaroneck Avenue. artsw.org
