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By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Voting rights and joy were referenced at Warsaw’s Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, June 22.

The sixth annual event was organized by the Juneteenth Community Members group and Count US IN, a Hoosier-based nonprofit which fights for voting rights for Black people, those with disabilities and more.

The celebration took place at the Kosciusko senior center.

Count US IN Founder and CEO Jalyn Radziminski was the keynote speaker. The current law student has spoken at a congressional roundtable regarding disability rights and serves on the Indiana Disability Rights Commission.

“Juneteenth is about freedom, liberation and celebration,” she said. “It’s also about reflection and contemplation on how to improve our conditions systemically for us today and for generations to come.”

Radziminski quoted late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer who said “Nobody is free until everybody is free.”

“On June 19, 1865, federal troops in Galveston, Texas, came to ensure all enslaved people were free,” she said. “This was just to note two and a half years after President (Abraham) Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the national end to slavery in the United States and I am proud to say that I was here and part of the … Juneteenth (celebration) here in Warsaw when it was deemed a federal holiday in 2021 for the first time.”

“But our history and fight for our rights and the acknowledgement of our lives and humanity did not end on that day,” said Radziminski.

She shared how Black people continued to face challenges despite the 15th Amendment and other legislation.

“The literacy test (for voting) and hostilities against our political participation continued to grow up towards Black communities as our advocacy, gifts and rapid ascension and resilience were ever so apparent,” said Radziminski. “In addition to the everyday social and economic stressors we experience today, there is also a lot of race-based violence, the burning of Black Wall Street (in Tulsa, Okla.), and a surge of harmful laws that segregated our communities and made it harder to vote.”

She said it was “Black, disabled women activists like Fannie Loe Hamer that fought for the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights acts of the ’60s that helped our communities and Black people in general have the right to vote.”

“Although we still live today under the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, there’s still a lot more to be done, and in Indiana and around the nation, we’re all gathering as activists to fight and stop the harmful policies and laws that are still trying to take our right to vote away,” said Radziminski.

She also noted that Saturday was “also a day that’s special for Black, disabled communities.”

“It’s the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C.,” she said, mentioning that L.C. was Lois Curtis.

“Lois Curtis was a Black woman and artist with mental disabilities who wanted to live in the community rather than be confined to a psychiatric institution,” said Radziminski. “She not only prevailed in her fight to live in the community outside of confinement, but set the legal precedent so today in addition to the Americans with Disabilities Act to stop the unnecessary institutionalization and segregation of people with mental health and all disabilities that persist in facilities, schools, jails, prisons and much more.”

Radziminski then shared how in 2016 she “had a mental health crisis.”

“I wanted to go home and be with my friends and family, but instead I was picked up by the police and then later transported to an institution,” she said, noting that she missed registering for college classes and housing and voting in an important election.

Radziminski noted that motivated her to found Count US IN, and she encouraged others to be involved too.

She ended her talk by referencing joy.

“In today’s world, with everything going on, days like this are so important and it’s OK to have joy even despite all the barriers that we face,” said Radziminski. “Joy is also a form of protest. Joy is a fuel to protect our spirits from violence. Joy comes from our community and is the fuel to sustain our movement for generations to come.”

To learn more about how to get involved with the Juneteenth Community Members group for future events, people should email Sara Strahan at [email protected]. Strahan said the group hopes to do a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. event in January.