Dr. Bobbie Green, president of the NAACP of Doña Ana County talks about Juneteenth and how it will be celebrated in Las Cruces this year. Here is her conversation with KC Counts transcribed:
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Juneteenth was established in June the 19th, hence the name, 1865. And it happened because Colonel Granger, a Union soldier and his army, went to Galveston and he informed those who thought they were still slaves. that they were no longer slaves because Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863. So we're talking two years later.
KC Counts:
So do you know if they kind of made their way down and as they were coming just kind of making that message or were they intentionally coming to Texas and to Galveston specifically?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
I think they happened to be in Galveston and discovered that these people did not realize that they were no longer slaves and informed them, hey, you're not a slave anymore. And there was no social media, no radio, no way. It was illegal for them to read at the time too. So they had absolutely no way of knowing, but the good citizens who knew did not bother to tell them either.
KC Counts:
So it's a cause for celebration.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
It's a huge cause for celebration because it speaks to the resilience, the persistence, the discipline. Imagine the discipline it would have taken to find out that you had been free for two years and nobody told you and you didn't resort to violence, retaliation. So it speaks to all of that. It speaks to the persistence of an oppressed people.
KC Counts:
And the holiday, although it happened in Texas, has grown beyond the state line. Tell me about your own experience with it here in New Mexico.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
It has morphed into a federal holiday under President Joe Biden. And in Las Cruces, as a child, I grew up going to Apodaca Park down the road on Madrid in Las Cruces, and we'd celebrate with BBQ and baseball and sodas and desserts and pound cake and all of those things. And we would spend the day at the park. I didn't really realize the significance of it back then. I only realized that it was some of the best BBQ I've ever had in my life. But later As I got older, I became knowledgeable about what it really was all about.
KC Counts:
What about the way it's taught in terms of our public schools?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
It is not taught in public schools. At least when I was in Las Cruces public school system, it was not taught. It's not in the textbooks as far as I know. It's not really in the college textbooks either.
KC Counts:
So how did you learn about its significance?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Well, African-American studies. And that's how I learned. and African American studies and that's when I learned what was really going on. In college.
KC Counts:
In college, yes. So tell us about how Las Cruces is celebrating Juneteenth this year.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Well, I can tell you that we have some wonderful things planned. First of all, the theme of this year's Juneteenth is We the People. And it is from the preamble to the United States Constitution, We the People in order to form a more perfect union. all of those things that it calls for, our union is far from perfect right now. But the same resilience that we had in 1865, that my ancestors had in 1865, is the same resilience we have today, the determination and the motivation to make sure that we don't, we the people are the ones that are in power, the government is run by we the people.
KC Counts:
How would you characterize how that message will be communicated during Juneteenth events?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Well, we will start with a workshop power of the black dollar, which is not talked about enough in my opinion. The black Dollars is trillions in the trillions, and our spending power is great. And we, I think, should exercise our spending power a little bit better, and that way we could demonstrate, hey, you know, we do not have to buy your products. We do not have to work with you. We can have our own services and what have you. And so that's part of it. The education of what our value really is, that will be a workshop on Juneteenth here at NMSU in the Zuul Library, third floor at 1 o'clock, 12 o'clock, rather. And then at 7 o'clock, something near and dear to my heart, of course, is the Gospel Explosion. And this year's Gospel Explosion is very, very powerful. We have, of course, the NMSU Gospel Choir, which is sounding pretty good, I got to tell you. We had rehearsal last night. They have an excellent conductor, I might say. And so then the local churches, all of the local black churches, Bethel, Second Baptist, New Life Missionary Baptist Church and my own church, Greater St. John. All of our choirs will be represented. We're going to have a big mass finale, grand finale number, which will be fantastic. Where is that taking place? It's going to take place at the Heart for the World Church at 1605 South Valley Drive at 7 o'clock. It's a free concert open to the public. We also have Lady Rosalind Jones from Albuquerque who will come and blow the doors off the place. She's a national recording artist. He came and sang here for our Martin Luther King brunch.
KC Counts:
A powerful voice.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Oh, yes, absolutely. And then we have some other singers, a young man from Alamogordo, who is incredible. Tyler Christopher will be joining us. So it's going to be wall-to-wall, powerful music. But the banquet, which we have every year, the annual banquet is Saturday the 20th, and it will be at the Las Cruces Convention Center. speaker will be Gene Grant, who is the executive director of the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs. He was appointed by Governor Lujan Grisham. He is a playwright. He is also a social advocate. He has worked closely with social advocacy through the years. He's also been on PBS from 2005 to 2023. He had a show called New Mexico in Focus. And that show, the focus was on African Americans, mostly in New Mexico. And so he is coming to talk to us and speak to us about his vision of we the people. And so we are thrilled that he's coming. We are very happy about it.
KC Counts:
What is your vision?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Well, I think that what the Constitution, what the preamble says, it talks about defending our people and it talks about welfare, the welfare of our citizens. It talks about equality, all of those things. What it says is what I think should happen. But remember, Dr. King said that Constitution was a promissory note, and it's a check that has not been cashed yet because of the discrimination and the racism back in his day in the 60s. And we still have that same issue, those same issues today. So I want to see that promissory note made good. I want to make sure that we have equal distribution of income and equitable lifestyles and quality of life for all people of color and everybody.
KC Counts:
Is there anything particular to note about the black experience in New Mexico that you'd like to share?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Yes, I think my parents came here in the 40s and married in Silver City in 1941. And they've been here, they were here until they both passed away in the early 2000s. So they were here for 60 plus years. And I was fortunate to be here because I grew up, I was the first African American student to attend MacArthur Elementary School. In the second grade, I started school there because my mother asked her employer that she worked for, cleaned house for. She said, why can't my baby ride the bus? The bus was passing right by our house and wouldn't stop for us, for me. And she asked, why can't the bus stop and pick up my child? And I guess she made the right, she connected with the right people and so the bus did stop and it started picking me up and I started attending that school as the first African-American child to go there. And I was treated with such care and compassion and had such an opportunity to become just a child with critical thinking skills. I didn't have to think of myself as a black child. I didn't think of myself as a black child. I thought of myself as another child and had a wonderful education at MacArthur Elementary School because of those teachers. So I'm grateful for that all the way through my K through 12 education. So the education here in Las Cruces, I'm happy about that. I do have a few concerns right now with the diversity programs. The policies do exist.
KC Counts:
This is something that obviously goes back now over the last year and change, right, where we're seeing an attack on those programs, obviously coming from the federal level.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
The DEI ban has been, even here at this university, it's been a challenge. So you figure out way. And if you think about it, we have always had to figure out a way. My mother used to say there's more than one way to skin a cat. So you figure out a way, you work around it, you change the name, you change the title, you don't call it diversity, you call it something else. You change the name to protect the innocent and you move forward and you dance around it until you get to where you can accomplish the same goals that you were looking for in the 1st place.
KC Counts:
All right, and just as those folks that were involved in you being able to just be a kid at MacArthur Elementary, those people exist today and are in far greater numbers.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
There are some wonderful teachers in our school system, but we're still at the lower echelon of education in terms of our ranking. Nationally, our ranking is not as good as it should be.
KC Counts:
And as some states, maybe more like Texas, that are living with legacies still of people being enslaved, New Mexico has its own set of legacies that are unique.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
We have Native Americans, we have Hispanic, we have all those people of color that are fighting right now for justice rights, immigration is an issue. All of those things are issues, especially right here on our borders. So we do have to be mindful. It's not just a black thing. It is a human rights thing. And it's people of color, all colors, all colors.
KC Counts:
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about, Doctor Green, that you think is important for people to know?
Dr. Bobbie Green:
I think it's important for people to know. We just had an election the other day.
KC Counts:
The primary election June 2nd.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
You know what the turnout was? It was about 20%. 20%.
KC Counts:
Which is not bad for a primary actually.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
Well, that's a fifth of the, I like to say, that is only 1/5 of the population making decisions about who's on the ballot for the rest of it, for the other 80%. And I don't think that's, I don't like that number. I don't like those odds. And so we have to educate our people about voting, the importance of voting, even in the primaries, in the municipal elections, in all elections, whether you're voting for dog catcher or president of the United States, it is critical. especially now that we vote. We are in the fix we're in right now because of the apathy of people who should have and could have voted and didn't. So we must fix that and that requires education. So part of our Juneteenth is going to be a voter outreach program, voter registration at all of our events and information sharing of here's how you vote, here's how you register, check your registration, make sure you're good, check when you do vote, here's how you can look if your vote counted, all of those things.
KC Counts:
November will be here before we know it.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
I hope so.
KC Counts:
Dr. Bobby Green, president of the NAACP and MSU professor, choir director. Oh, I forgot the other ones.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy board member. That's our local law enforcement too, which we also have some concerns about.
KC Counts:
I hope we can chat about that in greater detail soon.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
I would love to.
KC Counts:
Thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your time and happy Juneteenth.
Dr. Bobbie Green:
You know how I love you. Thank you.
You can learn more about these events on the NAACP Doña Ana County website here and on the NMSU Black Programs site here.
