STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's time now for StoryCorps on this Juneteenth. The federal holiday marks the date in 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and told some of the last enslaved Americans that they were free. Makeda Peterson remembers celebrating Juneteenth as a kid.
MAKEDA PETERSON: I remember things like pony rides and face painters and the smells of barbecue, and the feeling in your stomach where just everything's exciting and you don't have a worry. There was the sense of community.
INSKEEP: Wow. Her father, Horace Peterson III, started the Juneteenth celebrations in Kansas City, Missouri, in the 1980s. He also founded one of the country's first Black history archives. Now, Horace died in 1992, when Makeda was just 6. At StoryCorps, she sat down with her father's best friend, Tillman Stewart, to learn more about her dad.
TILLMAN STEWART: The first Juneteenth, Horace said we needed a donkey in the parade, OK?
PETERSON: Leading the parade, right?
STEWART: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: He was into animals, man.
PETERSON: (Laughter).
STEWART: The donkey is reminiscent of 40 acres and a mule. So if you couldn't picture 40 acres, you dang sure could see the donkey, OK?
PETERSON: What was my dad like when he was a young man?
STEWART: Yeah. Well, look, I like to go back to when we were just out of school. We worked right across the street from each other. And we'd walk down to this little thrift shop, and we'd be exploring in there, and we'd go back to work after our lunch hour. We'd be all dirty. And the director would say, damn, where you all been? But Horace knew that there were a lot of things that Black folk didn't know existed that were invaluable artifacts and pieces, but he didn't have any place to put these things. So he started out the trunk of his car until he had space to exhibit them to the public.
PETERSON: I just remember being in the archives on the weekends. And...
STEWART: Yeah.
PETERSON: ...I didn't realize what I was playing with every day was history.
STEWART: When Horace passed, it's one of the saddest freaking memories that I've ever encountered. What was it like to lose a father who was such a beacon in the community?
PETERSON: I was more so probably confused. And I remember that I started kind of collecting some things I could find, like his pens, things from his stuff.
STEWART: And then you picked up the Juneteenth thing.
PETERSON: It just takes me back, I think, to that moment of my life where everything was - you know, it was what it was supposed to be. Do you think he would be proud of me?
STEWART: (Laughter) Yeah, of course he'd be proud of you. (Laughter) I can hear him say, man, let's go get a cigar.
PETERSON: (Laughter).
STEWART: We're going to go over here and watch Makeda. You're standing on the shoulders of a giant. He was fantastic. But, hey, I think you embody a lot of your dad. You are the heir apparent and you have to take the throne.
PETERSON: Thank you.
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INSKEEP: Oh, that laughter. Makeda Peterson with Tillman Stewart recalling her dad, Horace Peterson III. This year is Makeda's 15th year leading the Juneteenth celebration that her father started. Her conversation was recorded as part of StoryCorps' Brightness in Black project, and it's archived at the Library of Congress.
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INSKEEP: Now, you may recall this, that MORNING EDITION and StoryCorps are marking America's 250th with a time capsule of American stories featuring you. You get matched up with a stranger from a different part of the country, some other MORNING EDITION listener, and you talk about your lives. Sign up at connect250.org. America, get ready to meet America.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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