
DATE: Saturday, May 10, 1997                TAG: 9705090059

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  134 lines

JUNETEENTH MARKS THE TIME WHEN SLAVES OUT WEST LEARNED OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

In Houston, Juneteenth is a grand affair. There is a big downtown parade, a Miss Juneteenth pageant and day-long performances by blues, gospel and soul bands at the Miller Outdoor Theater.

In Anchorage, Alaska, about 20,000 people turn out each year to celebrate Juneteenth at the Fairview Recreation Center and Delaney Park Strip.

Now add Hampton Roads to the list of locations that will honor the day when slaves out West got word of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although Abraham Lincoln's Jan. 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, news didn't travel to many of the southwestern states, such as Texas, until mid-June 1865.

In recent years, many Western cities began celebrating the anniversary as a way of spotlighting the richness of African-American culture and history.

Although the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation is observed locally with various ceremonies, Sheri Bailey, a Portsmouth native and playwright who recently moved home from the West Coast, thought a Juneteenth festival would be a good way to highlight African-American spirit and goodwill in Hampton Roads.

So she organized a celebration that will officially kick off with her play ``Summers in Suffolk'' at the L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center on the Norfolk State University campus June 20. The play, which stars actors Ruby Dee and Clifton Davis, is about the history of five families' lives during the Reconstruction period.

The fest then will move to Tidewater Community College - Portsmouth campus in Suffolk on June 21 and June 22. There participants can get a flavor for the times preceding the signing of the Proclamation. There will be period actors, playing such historic figures as Harriet Tubman, Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln. There will be tap dance performances, as well as gospel, reggae and rhythm and blues bands on hand. Participants also can enjoy hot air balloon and boat rides and more.

Although Bailey grew up in Portsmouth, memories of weekends spent with her father's family in Suffolk led her to set her play there.

Bailey eventually left Hampton Roads. She went to graduate school at UCLA, married and began producing plays. After she and her husband divorced, she decided to move back to Hampton Roads so her family could help rear her daughter.

She began producing her plays in earnest and thought it would be a great idea to do one in Suffolk. She thought about the Great Dismal Swamp; her grandfather was a guide who led hunting expeditions there. She spoke to a Suffolk park official who suggested that it might be better to expand the idea into a weekend festival.

``I wanted to do theater in the middle of the swamp, and from that, the ingredients of the festival came about,'' Bailey said.

The festival won't be in the swamp. But it will be close by.

Bailey has received $5,000 from the Suffolk City Council to help in her efforts.

Suffolk City Councilman Curtis R. Milteer said it was time Suffolk was the host city for a black cultural event and that African-American history was reflected in Suffolk, just as Peanut Fest celebrates the farming industry.

``It displays the African-American culture in a positive way,'' Milteer said. ``A lot of times when you read about African-Americans, it's in a negative light.''

Milteer said events like Portsmouth's annual Umoja Festival has a way of bridging the gap between people of different races.

But Juneteenth won't be unique to Suffolk. It's a region-wide effort. Bailey is getting help from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Hampton. Next year, the fest will move to one of those cities and will probably rotate each year, Bailey said.

Many major cities, such as Houston, have had Juneteenth festivals for years.

Bailey wants Hampton Roads to share in honoring that history - even though much of it was unpleasant. Slavery, the Confederacy, all are things that most blacks would like to forget. But it's a history that cannot be ignored, Bailey says. It's her hope that the festival will unite rather than divide the races.

``I think it helps connect us to a past that's often painful,'' Bailey said. ``White southerners feel like we're pointing the finger, but that's not the case. This is our common history we're talking about.''

She'd eventually like the General Assembly to consider signing a bill commemorating Juneteenth, but for now she'd like to educate the region on the history.

Many blacks have been uncomfortable with some forms of artistic expression by slaves, she said. Over the years, black plantation life has been negatively stereotyped by white minstrel actors, such as Al Jolson, who tap-danced and performed in black face.

But Bailey explained that there is a rich heritage in the crafts that were mimicked in the minstrel shows.

Tap, she noted, was often a mode of secret communication among slaves so their masters wouldn't know their plans for escape. And quilts often contained, in their intricate patchwork, messages to other slaves. It all symbolizes how slaves survived, Bailey said.

Bailey says she tries to aspire to the same philosophy in her work.

``Art is political,'' she said. ``I believe I should use it for answers and solutions.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Portsmouth native Sheri Bailey brings teh Juneteenth celebration to

Hampton Roads with her play. "Summers in Suffolk," starring Ruby Dee

and Clifton Davis.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Miss Juneteenth rides a float in Houston's 1996 Juneteenth

celebration. Similar festivities will begin in Hampton Roads this

year.

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Renee Williams plays Cleo and Rod Suiter, background, plays Amos in