Devon Henry, owner of the Newport News-based construction firm Team Henry Enterprises LLC, was the keynote speaker at this year’s local Juneteenth observance, “A Celebration of Freedom,” held under clear, hot skies but freshened by a brisk breeze off the York River, at historic Holly Knoll in Gloucester.
Last Thursday’s event was sponsored by the Juneteenth Committee, the Gloucester and Mathews branches of the NAACP, and The Gloucester Institute.
Known for his role in the removal of the Confederate statues from public lands in downtown Richmond, Henry brought a message of fierce determination to the crowd gathered under the huge live oak on the Holly Knoll lawn, where it is said that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a portion of his “I Have a Dream” speech.
“What does Juneteenth demand of us?” said Henry. “No matter what’s happening in Washington, D.C., we must move ahead; we can’t wait for permission. We must write it, build it, live it, tell it. We’ve weathered worse and never relied on politicians to set us free. We’ve relied on each other.”
Henry, who now lives in Richmond, recalled his childhood growing up in Newport News, where he went through the public schools and started working at age 14 at the McDonald’s restaurant in Yorktown “where they had the old ’57 Chevy.”
“Some of my best memories and life lessons were made there,” he said.
He reminded those present that Juneteenth was the day when freedom finally reached the last of the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and he emphasized that the lesson it offers is that “freedom delayed is not freedom denied, but it takes action.”
When Gov. Ralph Northam called and asked him for a favor, Henry said he didn’t expect he would be asked to remove monuments that had towered over Richmond for more than 100 years.
“I didn’t set out to become the face of monument removal,” he said, “but this was a moment that was bigger than me. It wasn’t just about moving heavy stones, but about history.”
What followed the removal, said Henry, were death threats, loss of business, and even an FBI investigation.
“Our lives, families, business, were all put at risk,” he said. “But my wife helped me by asking, ‘If not now, then when? If not you, then who?’ We were reclaiming public space and correcting the historical record. We were continuing the work of Juneteenth and freedom.”
But the real work was what came afterward, said Henry. The work of building memorials, of telling the history of people “whose backs were used without recognition, without compensation.” At the University of Richmond, his team worked on building a memorial in a burial ground for Black people whose presence there had gone unnoticed; at the University of Virginia, they built a memorial to enslaved laborers; and in the City of Richmond, they renovated and added on to the Richmond Slave Trail historic landmark and resurrected the historic homestead of Abraham Peyton Skipwith, the “founding father of Jackson Ward.”
The statues are down, said Henry, but the work remains.
“We must build systems where equity is the starting point,” he said. “Equity looks like classrooms that tell the truth, businesses that hire based on talent … We must build classrooms where children see themselves not just as the descendants of the enslaved but of the brave.”
Henry said he and his team took the statues down and then “built something better for our children, our country.”
“Let Juneteenth be our commitment to each other, to ourselves, to our ancestors, our children,” he said. “We must encourage our children to dream big, then when they dream big, tell them to go bigger until you’re scared about whether you can do that … The future is ours … Let’s get back to building.”
The daylong event included a welcome by Gloucester Institute’s founder and president Kay Coles James; an invocation by the Rev. Vincent Pryor, pastor of New Mount Zion Baptist Church of Gloucester; a group rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” led by musician Lee Nora Rice; and a selection of songs by the children’s choir.
Raymond Willis Jr., a member of the same Norfolk State University fraternity as Henry, introduced the guest speaker, and Henry’s address was followed by music by Ada and Tristan Barnes; recognition of Oratorical Contest winners Paula Ochou-Zepeda, Kaelyn Southworth, and David Washington; poetry by Christopher Green; and a dance performance by The Potter’s Vessels of Praise Dancers.
The observance, which began with the Opal Lee Walk through Gloucester Court House, ended with a Juneteenth Celebrity Fashion Show coordinated by Sarah Leonard; remarks by Brenda Dixon, president of the Juneteenth Celebration Committee; and a prayer by Mr. Pryor.
Throughout the day, those wandering the historic grounds enjoyed a selection of foods, various items of merchandise, and information on a variety of local organizations offered at a bevy of booths set along the drive that approaches Holly Knoll.
