More than a hundred people gathered on the lawn of the Howard County Courthouse in Fayette, Missouri, on Friday, June 20th to listen to local artists sing traditional gospel music.
This Gospel Fest was just one part of the 25th annual Juneteenth celebration in Fayette, a small town of fewer than 3,000 people.
For more than two hours, members of local churches, a visiting pastor from Marshall, Missouri, and a group of women from throughout mid-Missouri, called Joyous, shared songs from a small gazebo at the edge of the courtyard.
Aquilla Butler was a soloist with Joyous. She lives in Columbia and said it was her first time attending the Juneteenth celebrations in Fayette.
"I am actually surprised with the turnout here," Butler said. "I mean, I would suspect there may be at least 200 people or more, and, I think, for this community – Fayette, Missouri – that's phenomenal."
While a small town in deeply rural Missouri, Fayette has a long history of celebrating Juneteenth that goes back to 2001. Reverand Cheryll Doughty had just arrived in the community to become the pastor at one of the local churches, St. Paul United Methodist.
Doughty is from Wichita, Kansas, and said she had spent many years living in Oklahoma celebrating Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. In particular, it celebrates July 19, 1865, the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and told the enslaved people of the town that the Civil War had recently ended and that the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years prior, had freed them.
In 2001, the holiday was much more regional than it is today, and Doughty said most of the people she spoke with in Fayette were unaware of its history.
But, she said, Fayette is a significant place to commemorate Black freedom due to the relatively large Black population — about 13% as of the 2010 U.S. Census — and its history with slavery.
"Slaves used to come in off the ships in Boonville, and they were sold right there on the dock, so Fayette was very close to it," Doughty said. "And so, after researching, I thought, 'Okay, they need to know.'"
The city of Fayette and Howard County are at the center of a region in Missouri that's long been known as "Little Dixie." The area was settled by slave-owning people from neighboring states, such as Tennessee and Kentucky.
According to the Missouri State Parks, enslaved Black people made up about 10% of Missouri's population in the 1860 U.S. Census. But that number was much higher in the region – ranging from 20% to 50% in counties within "Little Dixie."
"I was kind of shocked. I never heard the word Juneteenth, and so I just started reading up," Tim Jackman said. His family has lived in Fayette for many years, and he's been an organizer of the event since it began. "So, that was a revelation to me. I never knew that, and again, I went to high school, went to college, and not that I studied history in college, but I had never known."
Since then, the event has grown substantially. From a small celebration centered around St. Paul United Methodist to a multi-day celebration that includes people from throughout the county and beyond.
This year – to mark the 25th anniversary of the celebration – there were five days of events, such as a banquet, the Gospel Fest, a community-wide worship service and a Saturday filled with numerous events on the courthouse lawn.
"From the very beginning, when we started with the celebration, we said we don't want this to be just like a Black thing. Yes, it's to celebrate the triumph over slavery in this country, so that makes it Black, but at the same time, we all know that it wasn't just Blacks that fought for the freedom of African Americans," Jackman said. "But I think because we're a religious organization, we also felt like it's a great time to celebrate diversity among all of God's people."
"You won't meet a stranger if you come to Fayette."
Preparation started early on Saturday morning, at about 7 a.m., to set up for a day of many events in honor of Juneteenth. There was free breakfast available to anyone in the community, people setting up games and inflatables for kids, others setting up a children's poster contest and vendors setting up to sell wares that ranged from crafts to pork rinds.
11-year-old sisters Jezabelle and Jordan were there early with their mom, organizer Stevie Gilpin, and their older brothers who were also volunteering.
They both were entered into the poster contest and were excited for the events in the kid's area, which included a bounce house, a gum bubble blowing contest and more.
"I'd say that my favorite thing is just how much people care about Juneteenth and like, how and why they're celebrating it," Jordan said. "And just like, how far they've come."
And for Jezabelle:
"I get to see everyone smile, like, everyone smiling, like on the bounce house," she said. "It's just so fun, and even though I'm helping, I still get to have fun too with everyone. I get to meet new people, make new friends, and it just brings the community really together."
Community was a central theme of the entire weekend – as the town's Juneteenth celebration not only includes a parade and a look back at history, but also the recognition of citizens who positively impact the community, a scholarship for academically successful students and a proclamation from the city.
Mayor Greg Stidham presented the Juneteenth proclamation that he said was unanimously approved by the Fayette Board of Alderman.
"Our country is made up of people from every nation on earth who are declared equal, not only in freedom but also in justice, both of which are essential for a healthy human civilization," Stidham shared.
And all of this celebration occurred while nationally, sentiments about the holiday appear to be disparate. Some non-Black people didn't know if or how to celebrate, while others rejected the need for national recognition altogether.
On Juneteenth, President Donald Trump posted on social media that non-working holidays are costing the country billions of dollars.
But in Fayette, the Juneteenth celebration has become as routine as Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Vendors and attendees, including Tatenda Garikayi, said they look forward to it because it brings people together. She's the daughter of Fatima Garikayi, the current pastor at St. Paul.
"It's more than just color. It's more than just what I think is right, what you think is right," Garikayi said. "It's just about getting together and, you know, just trying to see what God would have wanted the world to look like."
Reverend Karen Jones was the pastor at St. Paul's from 2016 to 2021 and attended many of the weekend's events. She said she and her husband try to make it back as often as they can, calling the celebrations "a homecoming."
"And, you know, in some ways, it is a very small-town celebration, but I think the genus of it is that it's a community," Jones said. "And then in '21 when it became an official holiday, you know, until then, we had kind of been these quirky small-town people... but suddenly we were pioneers."
As the parade, food courts and other celebrations drew to a close, Tim Jackman and other organizers said they're already looking forward to continuing the tradition next year and working to include even more people from their community and beyond.
"Let's just celebrate everybody because, you know," Jackman said. "It's no different than when you look at the fourth of July and that's celebrated by everybody. Why shouldn't Juneteenth be celebrated by everybody?"
"About love, respect, hope, faith, perseverance": What Juneteenth means to locals
Below is a selection of quotes from people who attended events during Fayette's 25th annual Juneteenth.
Aquilla Butler, gospel singer from Columbia
I remember as a little girl, I was taught these things in my home. So, it's important that we remember Juneteenth, but it's also important… to remember and teach it, and I'm not just saying black families. I'm saying even in my family, it's all the colors of the rainbow.
The ancestors, they're still speaking. They're still speaking from the ground; they're still speaking in the air. They're still speaking from the water. All we have to do is be quiet. Quiet our inner spirit, quiet our inner thoughts and emotions, and it'll speak to us. And what I hear the ancestors saying is, thank God that because of their sacrifices, we are free. But I also hear them saying, 'Don't let our sacrifices be in vain.' That's why it's important to remember Juneteenth. We can't let the history, we can't let the legacy die.
Reverend Cheryll Doughty, former pastor at St. Paul United Methodist Church
We have work to do, but if we keep telling the story, it will live. It will live long.
I don't think you'll ever see Juneteenth be so diverse, as it is here in Fayette. Even in Oklahoma City, it's not this diverse. It's predominantly African American.
We don't live in this world alone, and certainly we didn't come out of slavery by ourselves. So yes, it's very important. In fact, it's crucial.
Friends Constance, Yolonda & Vanessa
Yolonda Bryant Williams, Columbia resident: We want to honor our heritage. We want to honor who we were and who we are. So, that's why it's still important… Never stop honoring where you came from, because that makes you who you are.
Vanessa Redwood, Columbia resident: If it was not for the Lord helping us and preserving us and keeping us, we would not be here right now.
We think about the slave ships, and always think about how many of the slaves actually died because the conditions were horrendous, but because we're standing here – we know somebody in our line survived. That's why we can still stand here.
So, I just say all that to say this: because of that, we're here. God preserved us. God kept us, and he gave us a strength of mind and a strength of body to get to this point. So, we can see that our people, even though we went through all of that, we're still standing and so, we know that God is with us, and we do love Jesus because first he loved us.
Constance Crump, Fayette resident: I think history – we need to unfold the history and let the next generation know... where we come from. There is a beginning, and also there's an end. So, why not start with us? You know, to spread the love, what the history means to us.
Stevie Gilpin, organizer
Juneteenth is more than just a celebration. It's a powerful reminder of our shared history and the importance of unity moving forward. While it marks the delayed freedom of enslaved people in 1865, it also challenges us to keep doing the work of justice and equality today.
By revisiting our history with honesty and compassion, we can ensure that the mistakes of the past were not repeated in a world where division can feel overwhelming.
Juneteenth is to call to come together, to listen, to learn and to build a future rooted in equality, dignity and collective strength.
Glenn Ludtke, Fayette resident
If you haven't experienced cultures working together for the better, this kind of a celebration is a good place to start. And you will change the way you think. It'll change your attitude, it'll change your heart, it'll change your whole life. And that's what we're looking forward in this world, is people working together well.
Rev. Karen Jones, former pastor at St. Paul United Methodist Church
I know we haven't gotten to where we need to be yet, but we've made some progress by the grace of God and a lot of hard work.
The last year I was here, somebody pulled me aside and said, 'I'm not sure you understand what just happened here,' and I'm like, 'Well, I was on the committee. I thought I kind of knew.'
He said, 'No, no, you're not from here.' He said, 'there were people lynched on this piece of ground, and now you're having a worship service for Juneteenth.'
It was wonderful. I cried. It's a time of real hope, of just remembering that we're all neighbors.
Copyright 2025 KBIA