Green Bay celebrates sixth annual Juneteenth; here are the moments including a surprise

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Robin Scott, executive director and founder of the We All Rise: African American Resource Center, started choking up at the microphone while thanking everyone who made possible this year’s Juneteenth celebration.

“There will never not be a Juneteenth for the Green Bay community,” she said. “We will make sure that we continue to build and build and build.”

Juneteenth commemorates the day when Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, announcing the message of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to the enslaved population ― which is why it’s also called “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.”

Keeping with its practice of celebrating the federal holiday on the Saturday prior to June 19, the resource center held Green Bay’s sixth annual Juneteenth celebration at Joannes Park on June 14 themed “From Flourishing to Freedom: A New Chapter.”

Little moments and efforts pulled the event together. The National Weather Service Green Bay had forecast showers and possible thunderstorms, but the clouds had cleared by midday and the sun beat down on the event’s 69 vendors. We All Rise’s team had stuffed 500 bags of candy to throw during its parade to the park, which kicked off the event at 11:30 a.m.

And one of the resource center’s team members was presented with an engagement ring to whoops and cheers.

“Black folks, be with one another today,” Scott said. “Love on each other, heal on each other, because there is so many things that’s happening in this world that don’t want our bodies and minds at peace. It don’t want us to talk about the fact that our ancestors built this land. And so let us never forget, y’all.”

A candy trail to Joannes Park

The Milwaukee Hittaz drum line filed behind their coordinator Russ Trawicki at 11:30 a.m. and led the parade of golf carts and fire trucks and police SUVs down Chicago Street toward Joannes Park. They’d left Milwaukee at 7:45 a.m. and had rehearsed right up to then with loud RA-TA-TA-TAH! RA-TA-TA-TAH!s, perfecting their cadences.

Behind them, Stephanie Ortiz, associate director of We All Rise, and Scott, along with three children, were directly behind the drum line in the first of several golf carts outfitted in Juneteenth flags and balloons in red, green, gold, and black.

“Happy Juneteenth, y’all!” Scott shouted to the families and kids waiting along the parade route. She told those in the golf cart to keep their eyes peeled for children, and to throw the candy out to any kids they saw. There were Skittles and Nerds and Blow Pops and Airheads catapulted at the feet of kids running with glee.

Ortiz drove the golf cart right up to a patio to hand out mini Juneteenth flags.

Juneteenth 2025 parade drives up to porch in Green Bay

We All Rise: African American Resource Center hosted its sixth annual Juneteenth celebration in Green Bay, Wis. on June 14, 2025.

Down North Baird Street the parade turned and the golf cart bounced onto the sidewalk. Joannes Park was in view with an inflatable bouncy house, the tents of vendors, and tables set out in front of the stage from where the host, Ajamou Butler, a community activist from Milwaukee, would introduce the day’s events and musicians.

The golf cart dropped off Ortiz and Scott next to the stage, and they made their way up to kickoff the day at noon.

Ortiz, Scott first remarks at Juneteenth

Ortiz acknowledged their forebearers whose labor and dreams not only built this country, she said, “It built this moment, this gathering, this hope. Our presence would not be possible without their grit, their resilience, and their freedom dreams.”

The organization’s first Juneteenth celebration was organized in 2020 at Perkins Park because organizers had realized Green Bay didn’t do much in the way of Juneteenth. It wanted to change that and hold the celebration every year, which the organization has. It used the same stage backdrop as the previous year: “Solidarity is Love,” it read. “Juneteenth celebration is a beacon of empowerment, fostering pride, social connection, and the honoring of black history, black culture, and our ancestors.”

Scott took the microphone after Ortiz and said her blood held the memories of her ancestors, memories she passed to her children, she said. She urged people to enjoy each other’s company at Joannes Park.

“And for the people are not yet ready to show up, we see you, we love you, and we’ll see you next time,” she concluded.

‘You feel the joy and everyone being happy, don’t you?’

Renita Robinson had been fired from her job as vice president of diversity and inclusion at Prevea Health at the end of 2024, prior to President Donald Trump’s election to a second term. She found a new home at We All Rise as its senior director of client services.

“I think the persistence of this event in the face of everything related to taking away diversity and inclusion at the federal level is commendable,” Robinson said. “It’s commendable that We All Rise is doing business as usual because the needs of the community didn’t change: to have a place where you’re seen. It was just the response of the federal government that changed.”

From about 450 people counted in the 1990 census, the Black population in Green Bay grew over thirteen-fold by 2020 to nearly 6,000.

Robinson watched her son refereeing the three-on-three basketball tournament with 23 teams trying to take home cash prizes. Those on the sidelines had their chins in their hands, considering each dribble and shot. A swish of the net from the three-point line and those watching cheered as the teams battled toward 21 points.

“You feel the joy and everyone being happy, don’t you?” Robinson said. “That’s what it’s like at We All Rise.”

Art, food, education from 69 vendors in the community

The 69 vendors had set up their tents along the walking paths at Joannes Park. There were frybread tacos being sold by Indigenous Eats and a line of people at Fox Snow Cones next door whose machine briefly malfunctioned. There were clothes on hangers blowing in the wind. Delta Psi Chi, a Black fraternity founded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, set up in front of the Girl Scouts.

Alexsis Manns of Appleton was closer to the booth set up by Green Bay’s Office of Violence Prevention. She has been painting since the seventh grade.

Since turning her hobby into a side hustle, Juneteenth events were “definitely one of the bigger selling days” for her, the 26-year-old said. Manns said she liked to paint subjects that “anyone of any race” could display in their home. There were landscapes of mountains and portraits of Black women with tissued flowers in their afros.

She had sold one painting so far, Manns said. Typically, her goal is to sell five during an event, though one time she sold nine.

Then her next customer turned out to have known Manns’ art instructor from way back. Korrie Kovacs and her husband bought a landscape of snow-capped mountains, a lake, and a tree in the foreground for $25.

“It’s just beautiful,” Kovacs said.

The first marriage proposal at Juneteenth

Kids gathered for the hula hoop competition in front of the stage just before 3:30 p.m.

But before that, said Butler, there was a surprise.

“Only Wanna Be With You,” by Samm Henshaw began playing over the speakers, and Lamecia Merchant, a community health worker for We All Rise, stepped onto the stage. Her girlfriend of just over six months, Anesha Smith of Atlanta, stood waiting at the end of a row of kids who had white roses in their hands.

Smith took to one knee and asked the magic words, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes, yes,” Merchant said, and they kissed.

In the six years that We All Rise has hosted Juneteenth in Green Bay, there’d never been a proposal.

“We really celebrate love around here,” said Butler. “And in a day when we need more love and more kindness, this is what it’s all about, y’all.”

Marriage proposal at Green Bay Juneteenth 2025 celebration

We All Rise: African American Resource Center hosted its sixth annual Juneteenth celebration in Green Bay, Wis. on June 14, 2025.

New hula hoop champion

The prize for winning the hula hoop contest in the 12 to 18 age bracket was $150. There’s been a reigning Juneteenth hula hoop champion for about five years, however, the announcer said.

Elijah Harrison provided an upset to the reigning champion’s streak. It was his first time in the competition, he said, and he didn’t practice.

He didn’t know how he’d spend his $150, though plenty of his friends thought he should give it to them.

Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.