Columbus Juneteenth organizers wanting to sell beer at the annual event are claiming they are victims of pure-grain politics.
The 19th Juneteenth festival is set for June 19-20 at Sim Scott Park. The city council Tuesday denied event chairperson Cindy Lawrence’s request to sell beer within the park’s boundaries during the festival. Because of that, event organizers are expected to meet this evening and decide whether to cancel the festival.
Lawrence told The Dispatch that in past years nearly 40 percent of the festival’s revenue came from beer sales. She said Mitchell Distributing provides the beer to sell, along with a generous donation to the festival. What beer the festival does not sell is returned to the distributor.
Lawrence said when the festival first started selling beer, organizers set up the booth outside of park grounds on private property, but sales lagged. The city council later passed an ordinance allowing beer sales at Sim Scott Park and the Riverwalk, and she said the council has approved requests to sell beer at the park during prior Juneteenth festivals, including the last three events.
When the council voted 5-1 on Tuesday to deny this year’s request, Lawrence was “shocked.” Unless the council changes its position, she said she sees no way forward for the festival this year.
“The big thing is funding, and this is really what all this boils down to,” Lawrence said. “We would like for the city council to come back and rethink their vote.”
The festival, in addition to beer sales, brings in money from vendor booth reservations and sponsorships. It also receives a $10,000 contribution from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Brooks: ‘This is all intimidation’
Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, commemorates a June 19, 1865, event where Union soldiers brought news to Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War was over and slaves were free. In Columbus, the Afro-American Cultural Organization — founded by District 5 Lowndes County supervisor Leroy Brooks — started a local Juneteenth celebration in the late 1990s. Since the Juneteenth celebration also relies heavily on CVB funding that it cannot receive with a public official organizing the event, Brooks dissolved his organization and Lawrence stepped into the chair role for the Juneteenth-Columbus Committee.
Brooks, though, is still involved in Juneteenth, and he said that’s where the politics surrounding the council’s decision to stunt the event begins. Specifically, Brooks cited the city council’s ongoing disagreement with the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors over representation on the E911 board and which entity should operate the newly constructed Small Arms Firing Range near Lehmberg Road.
Also, he said the council’s vote showed a degree of solidarity for Ward 4 councilman Marty Turner, who is running against Brooks in the Democratic primary for District 5 supervisor.
“This is a bad situation, and there’s no reason for it other than politics,” Brooks said. “This is all intimidation, and they (the city council) don’t want to do the right thing.”
While Juneteenth organizers mull whether to continue with festival planning, Brooks said the group has suspended its advertising. But regardless of the outcome, it has already spent more than $3,000 in non-refundable booking fees on entertainment.
“We’re on a tight budget, and every penny counts,” Brooks said. “Who wants to come to a hot festival in June and not get to buy beer?”
Councilman: ‘The parks are for children,’not beer
Mayor Robert Smith would not comment Wednesday as to whether he supported the council’s action, or whether he believed it was political. He did make clear, however, that the council’s decision did not outright deny the Juneteenth organizers the right to sell beer.
Smith said the action only dealt with selling inside the park boundaries. It did not pertain to the street.
In order to sell beer on a street adjacent to the park, he said the committee simply had to obtain council approval to close the street. He pointed to the Market Street Festival, as well as the Southside Festival at Townsend Park. Beer vendors operate on the street at both of those events.
Smith acknowledged that certain other events allowed beer sales at the Riverwalk, but he would not comment on whether the council’s vote on Tuesday might have a ripple effect for those events.
“I can’t speak for the council,” he said. “I can only speak for myself. I did not vote, so I don’t know what it’s about.”
Further, with the other revenue the festival brings in, Smith said he didn’t understand why beer sales would make or break the event.
Councilmen Joseph Mickens and Charlie Box, of Wards 2 and 3, have consistently voted against allowing Juneteenth to sell in the park, citing moral reasons.
Box told The Dispatch he opposes alcohol sales and consumption at any family-oriented event, including Market Street.
Turner, who also voted to deny the Juneteenth request on Tuesday, does not take as hard a stance as Box and Mickens, but he feels selling beer at a city park where children play is not appropriate. He said he doesn’t oppose Juneteenth beer sales from the street.
“The parks are for the children,” Turner said. “I don’t think it’s a good look for anybody to be selling beer at a park. All festival should be uniform.”
Councilman Kabir Karriem, who represents Ward 5 where Sim Scott Park sits, agrees with Brooks.
As the only vote to approve the park beer sales, he said “politics” drove the council’s decision. Karriem thinks his fellow councilmen should reconsider, especially since there is an ordinance on the books that provides for beer sales at the park.
“This is an event that is especially important to the African-American community,” Karriem said. “We don’t have a lot of events to celebrate our history and heritage, and Juneteenth is one of them.”
For Turner, if the Juneteenth issue is political, he said shots aren’t just being fired from the city’s side.
He pointed to Tuesday night, where Brooks stood in the parking lot of the Municipal Complex after the council meeting alerting media members present that Juneteenth organizers may cancel the festival.
“He threatens to cancel the festival every year if something doesn’t go his way,” Turner said. “But if he isn’t on the committee, how can he have the authority to cancel it? That lets me know that Cindy Lawrence works for Mr. Brooks and will do anything that Mr. Brooks tells her to do … and so will Kabir Karriem.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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