1 dead, at least 20 hurt in a shooting at a Juneteenth celebration in Illinois, police say

Updated: 9:17 AM EDT Jun 18, 2023

At least 20 people were injured and one person died in a shooting overnight at a Juneteenth celebration in Willowbrook, Illinois, police say.Some of the injured were transported to hospitals by ambulance and others walked in, DuPage County Deputy Sheriff Eric Swanson told reporters Sunday.Ten patients were transported to four hospitals with injuries ranging from graze wounds to more serious gunshot wounds, and two people were in critical condition, Joe Ostrander, battalion chief of the Tri-State Fire Protection District said earlier. At least 12 ambulances responded to the scene, Ostrander added.Witnesses say the shooting took place around 12:30 a.m. in a parking lot in Willowbrook, about 21 miles west of Chicago. The motive behind the shooting is unclear and it is still an active investigation, Swanson said.

DENVER, Colo. — Juneteenth’s yearly celebrations bring the entire community together to celebrate when the last slaves learned of the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery in the United States, and it’s usually a great weekend of business for Black-owned shops and restaurants.

In Denver, the organizers of the celebration are planning to make this Juneteenth leave an impact far beyond the festival.

Fathima Dickerson sees the need for support and investment in Denver's historic Black neighborhood, Five Points. She and her family have owned the Welton Street Cafe restaurant for decades.

"We sacrifice friendships, relationships. We sacrifice our bodies with the labor. It's not easy. Restaurant work is not easy," said Dickerson.

Still, there’s nowhere she’d rather be than inside her family’s restaurant.

"It is the family reunion. It is where we gather, and food is why we gather," said Dickerson.

However, the place of love and soul is struggling to stay open.

"Surviving COVID as Welton Street Cafe has been a quiet storm," said Dickerson.

Her loyal customers are keeping the spot alive but her family doesn’t own their building, and rent in addition to maintenance is tough to afford.

"We always see a lot of pretty stories about being in business, and nobody likes to talk about the shortcomings or the downfalls, the failures that balance out success."

Dickerson's watched many Black-owned businesses struggle around her but she knows the neighborhood's success will only help all those around it too.

"This needs to continue to be the hub for us to call home so that we can get the resources and the services we need to better our families because that way we build a better community," said Dickerson.

She has hope that this neighborhood will survive and thrive, and this year, the Juneteenth celebration may help start that change to boost Denver’s Black community.

"When you think about it being larger than a weekend, it is. I'm Black every day, every single day. And when you're a Black business owner, you need support for your business every single day," said Dickerson.

"We look at it as a launchpad," said Norman Harris, the President of JMF corporation and the lead organizer of Denver's Juneteenth Music Festival.

Harris is organizing for partnerships with companies like Amazon and has web developers helping Black-owned businesses build websites for free.

He wants to make sure this festival is helpful beyond all the fun; that it is growing businesses, too.

Some of the proceeds of the event itself will go to businesses like Welton Street Café, so whether online or in person, this year's celebrations will help boost Black-owned businesses.

"When you get that type of synergy that happens within our community spaces, it's priceless," said Harris.

Denver’s online and in-person plan to boost businesses is modeling the way for Juneteenth celebrations across the country, a movement Fathima wants to last.

"Juneteenth is a lifestyle. I will say that it is. It is what I breathe, how I move. Juneteenth is representing and supporting the culture of Black people," said Dickerson.

Historian Dr. Vern L. Howard said it’s these moments of collaboration that can build Black wealth for generations to come.

"That is what the Emancipation Proclamation was about," said Dr. Howard, Chairman of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission. "And that is what Black businesses are about, is to leave a legacy and an inheritance to your offspring."

And the chance to pass this business down is a dream Dickerson isn’t willing to let go of.

"You save Welton Street Cafe, you save Five Points. You save Five Points, you save Juneteenth. You save Juneteenth, you save the Black community. We are trying to save a life," said Dickerson.

The declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday is putting pressure on more U.S. companies to give their employees the day off, accelerating a movement that took off last year in response to the racial justice protests that swept the country.

Hundreds of top companies had already pledged last year to observe Juneteenth in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the national reckoning on racism that followed.

But most private companies take their cues from the federal government — the country's largest employer — in drawing up their holiday calendars. President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, following the passage of a bipartisan Congressional bill.

More than 800 companies have publicly pledged to observe Juneteenth, according to HellaCreative, a group of Black creative professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area that launched a campaign last year to build corporate support for making June 19 an official holiday. That is nearly double the number of companies that had joined the pledge last year.

Patagonia, the outdoor apparel retailer, announced that all of its U.S. stores will be closed Saturday, and its corporate offices would be closed Monday. Other brands, including Target, J.C. Penney and Best Buy had pledged last year to adopt Juneteenth as a paid holiday, though they are keeping stores open. Several major banks have said employees will get a floating paid day off.

Many companies, however, had little time to shuffle their holiday calendars. Some offered employees a regular paid day off or promised to consider adding it to their calendars next year.

Nasdaq said its U.S. exchange would stay open Friday and Monday “to maintain a fair and orderly market and to minimize operational risks” but that it would discuss its future holiday schedule with regulators and companies.

State governments that had not already declared Juneteenth a holiday were also scrambling to respond the new federal holiday. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that all state government offices will be closed Friday, superseding a state law signed just two days earlier that would have made June 19 a state holiday next year.

Even though federal holidays like Thanksgiving are widely observed, private companies are under no obligation to offer any particular day off. But since many workers don't know that, they will likely wonder why they are not getting a paid holiday for Juneteenth this year, said Carolina Valencia, a vice president in research firm Gartner’s human resource practice.

In an era of increasing employee activism and fierce competition for talent, Valencia said she expects the number of companies offering Juneteenth to surge next year after employers have had more time to react.

“Many employees are going to resent their employers for not giving them the holiday because they don't understand that it's a complicated process,” Valencia said.

But she said the devil will be in the details. Many companies will likely offer it as a floating day off, making it unlikely that Juneteenth will become a national holiday on par with July 4th or Memorial Day anytime soon.

And many notable companies have not joined the movement. Walmart, which employs 300,000 Black hourly workers and is the country’s largest private-sector employer, told The Associated Press in an email that its employees are free to use paid time off to observe any holiday they wish, including Juneteenth.

Raheem Thompson, a social media specialist for a retail company, said he was disappointed he didn't get a paid day off. Instead, he said the company sent an email acknowledging the federal holiday and pledging to consider time off in the future.

“It’s kind of bare minimum," said Thompson, who lives in Atlanta but didn't want his company named for fear of repercussions. “I don’t think as people of color, we really care that you acknowledge it via email ... that doesn’t really have any true meaning to it."

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.

Black Americans, especially in Texas, have long celebrated Juneteenth with church picnics and speeches. But the federal holiday declaration brought it to the attention of some Americans for the first time.

Jamie Hickey, founder of a small fitness company in Philadelphia, said he had never heard of Juneteenth until he heard about it last week on the radio. Then, his four trainers started talking about it at lunch, and he asked them if it was important to them. He decided to make it a day off next year since it was too late to cancel on clients this year.

“They said, ‘are you serious, you are just now hearing about this?’" said Hickey, who founded Truism Fitness last year after the chain fitness company where he and other trainers worked closed because of the pandemic.

Hickey said he took the lead from his employees because, as a white man, he worried about jumping into trends only to be accused of tokenism.

“I don’t want to fake. If you are fake, you get caught and it’s a million times worse," Hickey said.

That's a major concern among even the biggest employees, said Erin Eve, CEO of Ichor Strategies, which advises firms on connecting businesses with their communities. Eve said companies will get called out by their employees, customers and even investors if they take steps like observing Juneteenth without investing in Black communities or looking at their own internal diversity.

Still, Eve said the declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday will make companies that don't follow suit increasingly look bad.

“For current employees, it will reaffirm a dissonance with their values," Eve said.

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Associated Press Writers Urooba Jamal, Anne D'Innocenzio, Michelle Chapman and Roger Schneider contributed to this story.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Juneteenth is a recognized commemorative holiday in almost every state and the District of Columbia, and President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Thursday making it a federal holiday.

“We're becoming more diverse,” said state Sen. Reynold Nesiba of South Dakota, where the Black community has more than doubled since 2000.

But with that growth comes what many say is slow progress for inclusion.

“Diversity is the thing that, you know, no one can take away from us. But inclusion is an act, and we all play a part in it,” said Willette Capers, the Assistant Dean of Students for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Augustana University in Sioux Falls.

Capers and local business owner Julian Beaudion have spent the last year working with South Dakota state legislators to make that inclusion real.

They worked to make Juneteenth an official state holiday that would give state workers an additional paid day off.

“What Juneteenth really represents is the promise for all Americans to be free,” said Beaudion. “It's the promise of tomorrow, it’s the promise of the future.”

At the beginning of 2021, there were three states left that didn’t recognize Juneteenth as a holiday: North and South Dakota, and Hawaii.

North Dakota and Hawaii both approved legislation to honor Juneteenth as a state holiday this year. South Dakota was the last state left after two bills introduced in the state legislature to recognize the holiday failed.

Sen. Nesiba wrote one of those bills with collaboration from community members.

“There weren't any really strong opponents to this bill, just a general sense that they didn't want one more holiday. I think somebody said that it could be potentially divisive. I see it just the opposite. I think that it's an inclusive holiday that we can all celebrate the end of slavery,” said Nesiba.

Both Nesiba and community members felt disappointed when the bill did not even make it past committee hearings.

“I find it somewhat ironic,” said Nesiba. “I don't think there's any other state that has a 60-foot carving of Abraham Lincoln's face, the great emancipator himself carved into the side of a mountain. You would think that with a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that we would be a state that would embrace the work and embrace the why Abraham Lincoln is on Mt. Rushmore.”

Beaudion hopes anyone who was opposed to this holiday will come to see that making Juneteenth a holiday is about more than the bottom line.

“As entrepreneurs, we understand the value of closing down on a busy day and we understand why business owners do not want to do it. However, they do it on July 4, they do it on other holidays. Juneteenth is just as important to us as July 4 is of the rest of America,” said Beaudion.

Even though the state legislature did not come to an agreement on Juneteenth, South Dakota’s governor did make a proclamation to ceremonially honor Juneteenth this year.

However, the community says a ceremonial day is just not enough.

These South Dakotans hope that next Juneteenth will be different—not just a federal holiday but one recognized by their home state.

WALLACE, La. — Just inside the levee holding back the mighty Mississippi River, there is a quiet stillness in the land and a story that is still unfolding after more than two and a half centuries.

The place is known as the Whitney Plantation, which dates back to 1752.

“We just have a lot to contend with,” said Joy Banner. “When we think about plantations, most people erroneously use the word ‘plantation’ to refer to the ‘Big House’ and the ‘Big House’ only.”

Not there, though: the ‘Big House’ is not the main attraction.

That’s by design.

“This interpretation is based around the life, labor and the culture of the enslaved people,” she said.

Joy Banner’s ancestors once worked in the surrounding fields as slaves. She now works for the nonprofit foundation that runs the Whitney Plantation.

“There is so much trauma and so much pressure on Black people to just push it on the side and move forward: ‘Don’t make anyone uncomfortable with it,’” she said. “So, I’ll be honest, I’m unpacking my feelings about the cabins, the plantations, every single day.

Seven years after opening to the public, the Whitney remains one of the only plantations in the country whose entire focus centers on the people who were enslaved there.

“If we are presenting true history, then I don't see there being any other choice, but to center it around enslaved people,” Banner said.

Inside a church on-site, visitors are greeted by life-like statues known as the "Children of Whitney."

“In the face of everything that is happening to them, they drew from their faith,” Banner said, as she looked around the church and at the statues. “They just have a presence and they have a humanness – a humanity about them – that really makes you feel like you’re in company with them.”

There are no shoes on the feet of the children's statues. Their clothes are threadbare.

“It’s a reminder that the system of slavery impacted children as well,” she said.

Even after Juneteenth and news of their emancipation, not everyone on the plantation could afford to leave. Many stayed and worked the land under a new system, not slavery in name, but difficult to get out from under.

“In the case of Whitney, there's a plantation store. And so, all of their staples, all of their groceries, items that they need, are purchased from the store, which is then deducted from their wages. So, then you have a system of debt that's created and perpetuated,” Banner said. “And so you have generations of people that stay on the plantation and work on the plantation.”

People worked the land there well into the late 20^th century.

“Until the 1970s,” Banner said. “The cabins that we have here on-site, we have two original cabins, there were people that were living in them until the mid-1970s.”

The cabins are a stark reminder of slavery and have been moved to be located much closer to the "Big House" than they were in the past.

“Sometimes, I’m in this desensitized mode, just to go about my day,” Banner said, “and then there’s other days where I just walk by the cabin and I’m just like, ‘People lived here. Like, my ancestors lived here.”

It’s also emotional: a place of uncertainty and pain in the past that is still felt today.

“Think of the trauma – it may be a person that has just been separated from their family. Because that person that you welcome into your family unit, and that you love as part of your family, he could be sold tomorrow,” Banner said, as she held back tears. “So, when people love someone else in a community, that’s an act of resistance, to stay human and to stay connected with each other.”

For the 100,000 people who visit each year, she hopes their message about what plantations were really like historically helps them think about what racism looks like today.

“I would also encourage people to understand how does racism take shape and form in their own communities,” Banner said, “and what is it that we can do to learn more or to help more.”

It’s a message they hope will resonate throughout the land.

A Black-owned rideshare service by women for women is being rolled out in Portland. It's called Go Girl Ride.

The owner's mission is to provide a service for women and non-binary people to ride and feel safe.

Founder Trenelle Doyle says the idea was sparked while she was an Uber driver and would hear stories about people feeling unsafe in other rides.

She says it's also something she experiences firsthand. Pairing that with rising sex trafficking crimes, Doyle says she wants to inspire change.

Go Girl Ride is launching on Juneteenth.

Doyle says that's the perfect launch date because it's about the liberation of Black people.

After being rolled out in Portland, the ride-share service will expand to other cities that have high rates of sex trafficking.

Eliana Moreno and Alex Livingston at Newsy first reported this story.