SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) — Wednesday marks the federal holiday “Juneteenth,” on the day in 1865 when the last slaves in the United States were set free.
Monday, Dakota News Now learned details from witnesses and the Sioux Falls Police about Saturday’s Juneteenth celebration in Sioux Falls, when a passerby allegedly spit toward the Grand Marshal of the parade.
It was a moment that one witness says escalated quickly and de-escalated quickly during the late morning Freedom Walk, the event that kicked off the day-long Juneteenth celebrations. Before the walk, the Juneteenth Sioux Falls Grand Marshal Chet Jones — a former state senator who has been a community activist in the Sioux Falls area for over 50 years — made a speech about his life of overcoming racism.
Then, with about a quarter-mile left in the mile-long near downtown’s Fawick Park, where the walk began and ended, a biker came riding up the side of the nearly 100 walkers, making his way to the front, where Jones led the pack.
Langston Newton, the president of the Sioux Falls chapter of the NAACP, was right behind Jones.
“All of a sudden you can hear him yelling some obscenities, you could hear him talking through frustrations, but he was looking at us,” Newton said of the biker. “They were directed toward us. He was kind of weaving in and out of the bike path, and then he got to the front, and he was saying names and saying some things and all of a sudden it was just, he made a gesture toward the front of the group. It looked like he attempted to spit at us. So, when that happened, obviously at lot of us were taken aback.”
As shock hit the group, Jones, their leader, just kept walking, Newton said. The biker rode away.
“This was a testament to Chet,” Newton said. “He was so stoic, he was well-tempered. I was communicating with him and he just said, ‘Hey, we knew something — some stuff like this would happen. So, he was just such a great example of what it looks like to exist in this space.”
Newton said Jones then calmly called Sioux Falls Police on his cell phone, reporting the incident. Officers arrived quickly to find nobody that was “causing any problems” and “nobody flagged down any officers to report any issues,” according to Sioux Falls Police public information officer Sam Clemens in Monday morning’s daily police briefing.
Clemens said his department received a call on Saturday about a man harassing people during the walk. A few officers were in the area but did not find anyone that matched the description of the alleged harasser. There was nothing in the call about someone spitting.
“We’d heard about that, but I guess the victim in that case, if he was not spit on, he has not come forward to make a report with police,” Clemens said, adding that officers have not been able to reach the person who made the call — Newton said it was Jones — and that the investigation is continuing.
Newton said he did not hear a racial slur come from the biker, and knows of nobody else who heard a racial slur.
Jones declined an opportunity to talk to Dakota News Now about the incident.
Juneteenth Sioux Falls 2024 president Julian Beaudoin — a former state trooper who co-owns Swamp Daddy’s Cajun Kitchen and recently finished his tenure as the executive director of the South Dakota African-American history Museum — said he was “disgusted” when he heard about the alleged spitting.
“Spitting at or spitting on someone is the most disrespectful thing you can do to another human being,” Beaudoin said.
Beaudoin spoke with Jones on Monday morning.
“He wasn’t his usual happy-go-lucky self,” Beaudoin said. “He was still appreciative of the honor that was bestowed on him, but I could just hear it in his voice that he was disappointed. Chet is a man who has served this community a long time – not just black folks but our state as well as a representative. He’s a wonderful man of character, and he put that on display when this took place.
“And so, again, I’m just really appreciative that it was Chet in that position as Grand Marshal, and not someone else, because that definitely could have taken a turn for the worse.”
While it is unknown if the group of mostly Black people was a target of racial intimidation or not, both Newton and Beaudoin mentioned how they tried to put themselves in Jones’ shoes, as someone who lived the civil rights era of the 1960′s as a teenager in California and as the only Black student enrolled at Northern State University in Aberdeen during his time there from 1967-71, when he was a three-time conference champion wrestler and member of four conference championship football teams.
Jones moved to work Sioux Falls shortly after graduation. He has been a prominent figure in high school and college sports circles, particularly as an official in several sports. He is a member of the Northern State Athletics Hall of Fame as an athlete, South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame as an official, and African American Hall of Fame in California.
He mentioned in his pre-Freedom Walk speech about overcoming plenty of racism in his over 50 years of living in the area.
“Chet as an activist, having a past of fighting in the civil rights era, putting him in position to be spat towards again, I can only imagine what Chet felt during those times. I can only imagine what he thought about during those times,” Beaudoin said, adding that Jones might not want to talk about Saturday’s incident because of past racial trauma the incident may have harkened.
Both Newton and Beaudoin noted this incident came on the heels of neo-Nazi demonstrations in Pierre and Deadwood a week prior.
“I’m very aware that there are many people in the community that do not feel safe, here in South Dakota, here in Sioux Falls,” Newton said.
“Black folks are definitely starting to feel less and less safe,” Beaudoin said. “Whether it’s at home, whether it’s out in the community, we have to be on guard, and have to be more on guard than we already were. Things like this unfortunately happen to black folks every single day, right in our community.
“And, so, when you talk about aspects of safety, there are definitely some individuals who may feel safe, but as a community we feel less and less safe every day. Now, with that said, that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to progress toward the goal of safety, towards the goal of justice and towards the goal of freedom.”
Beaudoin said has had recent conversations with Sioux Falls Police chief Jon Thum.
“We have a very unique opportunity where, if we can act very swiftly, then we can be dedicated to each other, and we can show people outside of Sioux Falls, outside of South Dakota, that this is a safe and welcoming community. But, until we do that, this is definitely not what feels like a safe and welcoming community to Black folks.”
After the Freedom Walk finished at Fawick Park, Juneteenth Sioux Falls events continued with the festival a couple blocks away in the parking lot of the Avera IT building. There were no more incidents threatening patrons’ safety the rest of the day.
“We’re not going to let anything put a damper on our community,” Beaudoin said. “It was a rainbow of colors out there, and there was so much appreciation from us as a committee to see overall the community of Sioux Falls coming out and just loving on our community and celebrating what we were celebrating which was Black freedom and Black joy.”
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