Detroit Juneteenth celebration highlights Camp Ward's historic role in Civil War
June 19, 2025, will mark the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth.
The holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas.
Celebrations have already started in Detroit.
Campau Park on the city's east used to be Camp Ward, where the 102nd United States Colored Troops trained during the Civil War over 150 years ago.
"We represent the only Black regiment from Michigan that fought in the Civil War," Guyler Turner, president and corporal of 102nd U.S. Colored Troop Company B, said.
A group of Civil War reenactors set up a tent with help from a local Boy Scout troop on Saturday. Their clothing and oxtail soup demonstrated what it was like for the nearly 900 volunteers who were fighting for something more.
"It was a large community of free Blacks here, and also of runaway Blacks who wanted to do something to really earn their own freedom," Sharon Elizabeth Sexton, chair of the Camp Ward Juneteenth Celebration, said.
After the Civil War, the site became a legendary Black neighborhood.
"At the end of the war, they were given this land to build their homes, and this is where 'Black Bottom' started and grew and grew," Eleanor Anderson, the "Queen of Black Bottom," said.
Anderson is also the founder of this event.
"I would tell everybody and anybody that we should have our own Juneteenth and not wait for somebody to do it for us," Anderson said.
She says the goal is to one day get the area designated as a national historic landmark.
"Basically, we want people to know that we are part of history," Sexton said.
And we should never forget the past.
"Those people laid the foundation for us to be here today. And so that is very important for us to be able to be storytellers, to tell that story, so each generation will never forget where we came from," Turner said.
