Norwich ― History resounded in song, dance, poetry and speeches on Friday during the Norwich Juneteenth ceremony as participants recalled the 1865 Texas origin of the new Connecticut state holiday, their own family histories and the promise of the future on display in youth performances.

Norwich hosted the first known Connecticut Juneteenth celebration in 1989. The day marks the June 19, 1865, event in Galveston, Texas, when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger informed former enslaved people that President Abraham Lincoln had declared them to be free some two years earlier.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill last June making Juneteenth an official state holiday starting this year.

About 80 people gathered in the David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard outside Norwich City Hall on Friday. Speakers recounted the historical origins of the holiday and reminded participants to keep this and their own histories alive.

Keynote speaker Tracy Espy, president of Mitchell College in New London, said the more people learn about the history and people connected with the holiday, the more human the stories become.

“Our celebration today commemorates the hardships endured by great people,” Espy said. “It exemplifies survival, resilience, perseverance, empowerment and hopefulness.”

Espy read excerpts from a 1949 recording of former enslaved man Fountain Hughes. Hughes’ grandfather had been owned by Thomas Jefferson.

“There were no beds,” she read. “We slept on floors like wild people. We belonged to people. They sell us like they sell horses and cattle and hogs and all the like.”

After the war ended, Hughes said, “We were just turned out, like a lot of cattle.”

Espy said his story provides the “humanness” of the former slave’s story. She said enslaved people had learned the power of telling the stories of their lived experience. She tied her own life to the lives of her ancestors learned from storytelling and records kept in a “very, very old, large family bible.”

Espy said she is a direct descendant of Darby Willis, who was enslaved in Virginia and sold to Alabama. He was a driver, farmer, minister and founder of a church in Alabama, now on the National Register of Historic Places, Espy said. She learned more about him through research in graduate school. She called it a long, tearful road to acknowledging “this glorious history that is mine and that of my family.”

Espy grew up in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1970s and ‘80s, “after the Civil Rights movement,” she said, but with signs and clear undertones of systemic racism.

“My ancestors’ stories are my superpower,” Espy said. “It took me a long time to say that and to believe it, but it’s true. It is my superpower. Without their stories, I would not be here today speaking to this very fine group of people. All of us here today, all of our stories, both individual and collective are critically important.”

Friday’s ceremony honored founders of Norwich’s Juneteenth celebrations, longtime NAACP President Jacqueline Owens and Norwich Police Lt. Daniel Jenkins, both deceased. Mayor Peter Nystrom presented a proclamation to Jenkins’ son, Daniel Jenkins III.

“Every time Juneteenth Day happens, I think of Mrs. Owens, and I think of my father, how this day was so special,” said Daniel Jenkins III. “And I look around and I see the support. This is a very, very important day for all of us in the city of Norwich. I love the city. My father loved the city, and I can see you guys love the city.”

Norwich’s Juneteenth celebration will continue Monday with a free Juneteenth Community Cookout from noon to 7 p.m. in the parking lot at the corner of Franklin and Bath streets in downtown Norwich. The event includes free food and entertainment and is sponsored by Three Sisters Beauty Bar & Boutique.

Anyone interested in donating toward the event or vendors interested in participating should contact Three Sisters by email at 3sistersbbb@gmail.com or by text to (860) 710-7319.

c.bessette@theday.com