Journey to Juneteenth: Gifford Celebrates 161 Years of Freedom
- Vero Minute
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
The story of emancipation in Florida runs straight through Gifford. This past weekend's Journey to Juneteenth celebration at the Gifford Community Center honored that lineage with everything it had.
The afternoon was organized by Jonnie Mae Perry, who also serves as president of the Indian River County Historical Society, and whose commitment to keeping Gifford's history alive and celebrated is evident in every detail of an event like this one.
Performer Ayize, meaning "let it flow," opened without a drummer and turned the room into her percussion team instead. Hands, feet, voices. She traced it back to the Stono Rebellion of 1739, when drums were how freedom traveled between people who weren't allowed to speak freely.
Dana King, now a Vero Beach resident, and one of the country's most celebrated public sculptors, emceed with real authority, walking the room from Watch Night, December 31st, 1862, all the way to June 19th, 1865.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Tameka Bradley Hobbs, public historian, Florida A&M and Florida State educated, and author of Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida, which won the Florida Book Award and the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award from the Florida Historical Society. She spoke about the overwhelming joy of emancipation and literacy as the ultimate form of empowerment.
Near the front sat Leonora Williams, 106 years old and Gifford born, whose grandmother walked 26 miles to Tallahassee to celebrate emancipation. Still here. Still witness.
Watch the replay here. Dr. Bradley Hobbs begins speaking at the 8:43 mark.
To learn more about the Gifford Community Cultural and Resource Center and the Gifford Historical Museum, click here.