Tshombe Selby, and stories of the struggle for freedom, highlight Juneteenth celebration (2024)

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on June 20, 2024

Tshombe Selby, in performance at the Juneteenth Celebration at the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum in Manteo. (Photos by Kip Tabb/OBV)

Lin Bennett, the (multiple) great grandson of Zion Hall Berry, the first pastor of Havens Creek Baptist Church, one of the oldest churches on Roanoke Island. (Photos by Kip Tabb/OBV)

The musicians who made the songs of the African American experience come alive. Tshombe Selby (R) pianist John Buford. (Photos by Kip Tabb/OBV)

Fort Raleigh park ranger Mike Zatarga describing the experiences of the formerly enslaved people who created the Freedmen’s Colony. (Photos by Kip Tabb/OBV)

See Also

NC budget makes savvy investments - Restoration NewsMediaThe Standard Union from Brooklyn, New YorkThe Black Freedom Struggle in the Urban NorthCitizens and Thieves: “Aryanization” in Wartime Varaždin

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice

With well over 100 people in attendance at the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum in Manteo, the fourth annual Juneteenth Celebration featured the remarkable voice of native son Tshombe Selby.

Selby, who is a soloist and ensemble member of the New York Metropolitan Opera, brings a rich, powerful and nuanced voice to his performances. Accompanied by John Buford in his first public appearance since “ringing the bell” after an eight-month battle with leukemia, the selections highlighted Selby’s vocal range—and the joy that comes from accomplished musicians performing at the highest level.

Selby began the late afternoon performance with an a cappella performance of the Star-Spangled Banner that was inspiring.

Throughout his solo career, Selby has focused on the traditional music of African Americans. His rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing, often referred to as the Black National Anthem, was uplifting and joyous. Although his knowledge of traditional spirituals runs deep, his selections only included two songs in the genre, Wade in the Water and Let My People Go, songs that are deeply embedded in the American experience.

What truly made this performance stand out were the more modern selections. They consistently spoke of the yearning of the Black community for equality and recognition. There was Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. Released by Cooke in 1964, it was snapshot into African American life in the early 1960s with the lyrics telling of the degradation of racism.

“I go to the movie, And I go downtown, And somebody keep telling me, ‘Don’t hang around,’” is one of the verses. Yet the song ends on a note of hope–“It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know, a changes going to come. Oh yes, it will.”

The interpretation of Summertime from Porgie and Bess evoke fear for the safety of a child and the hope for a better future that parents have always dreamed for their children.

Perhaps no song illustrated how willing Selby—and Buford—were willing to take a chance on their music as Stand Up from the movie Harriet Tubman.

Selby introduced the piece giving the background to the lyrics.

Telling the audience that Tubman was probably the best known of all the Underground Railroad conductors, he described what would happen when she would come to a river or stream that had to be crossed.

“Some of the men in the group, they got scared because they could not swim,” he said. “So Harriet Tubman, strong woman that she was, she knew that if these men went back, they were likely to get captured by the people who they were running from, and they would tell where they were going…So she reached into her into her belt and pulled out her gun and shot it, and said, ‘You die either with them or you’re gonna die here or you can cross the stream.’ Let’s just say that she never lost the soul.”

The story of Harriet Tubman helped frame the story of Juneteenth, and why the day is so significant.

Although Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing any slave in a state in rebellion against the United States, and Congress had passed the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery on Jan. 31, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in June 1865, the enslaved people of Texas did not know they were free.

On June 19Major General Gordon Granger, issued General Order No. 3, declaring, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

The story was retold by Coquetta Brooks and Joan Collins, both board members of the Pea Island Preservation Society (PIPSI), the nonprofit that manages the Cookhouse Museum.

The 2024 Juneteenth Celebration, with its emphasis on the history of emancipation and the African American experience on Roanoke Island was different than past years. Longer, too, but it was filled with fascinating bits and pieces of information and links to the past.

The story of how Haven Creek Baptist Church, one of the oldest churches in Manteo, got its name was told through a recording that historian and PIPSI board member Darrell Collins made for Current TV.

Collins’ story recalls the Civil War and the Freedmen’s Colony that formed on the north end of the island.

“If you could cross the creek [Croatan Sound] to Roanoke Island you would find a safe haven. Hundreds of runaway slaves came to Roanoke Island seeking freedom…One of the oldest churches was formed here…Haven Creek Baptist Church…was formed in 1863.”

One of the Juneteenth speakers was Lin Bennett, who is a direct descendant ofZion Hall Berry, the first pastor of Havens Creek Baptist Church.

Tales of the newly opened Freedmen’s Trail on the north end of Roanoke Island were recounted by Fort Raleigh Park Ranger Mike Zatarga. He described stories of the Freedmen’s Colony, beginning with Benise Jackson, whose story came to light in a 1949 Brooklyn, NY newspaper article.

“Born into slavery in Elizabeth City, [she] escaped here with her children,” he said. “The children would eventually grow up and become part of the first graduating class of Hampton University.”

The stories were the theme of the day, with Selby’s final selection Make Them Hear You from the movie Ragtime underlining the need to tell the story.

“Go out and tell our story, Let it echo far and wide. Make them hear you, make them hear you…”