Fort Worth activists shift gears with Juneteenth barbecue in Stop Six
Activists shifted gears Friday, hosting a community barbecue instead of leading a march through Fort Worth.
Celebrating Juneteenth, community service group 1 Love offered a place for the community of Stop Six and others who have been involved with the activism in Fort Worth to have fellowship over some food.
Everything was free, though donations were accepted to put toward the creation of a community crisis center in Stop Six.
Roy Montelongo said the barbecue served a historical role in bringing Stop Six residents together. His goal for the night, beyond fellowship, was to encourage people to learn and help stop what he called the school-to-prison pipeline.
Removing police from schools is one way to help alleviate that effect, he said.
He also said he would like to see Juneteenth celebrations become commonplace around the U.S, like a second July 4.
DeShaun Montez and Tommy Moore, with No Sleep Till Justice, said they wanted to raise awareness for the holiday, too, and see it become mainstream.
“Black people haven’t been able to celebrate Juneteenth without it being political,” Montez said. “We want to be able to celebrate without it being political. We want to be able to say that black lives matter without it being political.”
Ryan Burton, founder of 1 Love and an education activist, said one of his goals was to bring the Stop Six community together so they could help children overcome traumas they’ve faced in the past few months before going back to in-person classes in the fall.
From coronavirus to distance learning to the highly publicized recent deaths of black people at the hands of police, he said, children have gone through a lot.
He also wanted the event to simply be a fun place for the community.
The Juneteenth celebration, while primarily a community barbecue, was also an opportunity for organizers to bring together people from different neighborhoods and gather more signatures for their three petitions.
CiCi Leake, one of the organizers with Black Love and co-author of the petitions, said the three measures seek to defund and “demilitarize” police, fund a community crisis center, and remove Fort Worth police officers from schools.
Leake said the petition to defund police calls for removal of police access to rifles, shotguns, riot gear and tanks. She said that, ideally, it would do away with SWAT, any tactical gear like night observation goggles and armored vehicles as well.
The second petition asks that the city use money that had been used to buy and maintain police tactical equipment to instead fund a new community crisis center that would replace police responsibility to respond to mental health calls, drug use calls and family issues.
The third petition seeks the removal of police from schools and calls for school resource officers to be replaced with counselors trained in dealing with active shooter situations. Montelongo said this would help end the school-to-prison pipeline.
Leake said she would also like to see more focus on mental health within the community. She hoped to use the event to spread awareness of mental health problems and resources available to assist overcoming or living with those problems.
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 8:39 PM.