Human Relations Commission Postpones Vote On Pride And Juneteenth Celebrations

The Athens-Clarke County Unified Government Human Relations Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to raise Pride and Juneteenth flags in June and tabled a vote until April 4 on recommendations for the commission’s role in those celebrations. 

Human Relations Commission Postpones Vote On Pride And Juneteenth Celebrations

The Pride flag will be up at City Hall from June 1-16, and the Juneteenth flag will be up from June 16-30.

The commission plans to narrow down a list of items at its Community Outreach subcommittee meeting March 29 about how it will coordinate Juneteenth celebrations with the annual Hot Corner Festival June 7-8. The commission will vote on the list and paraphernalia for the Pride event April 4 at a special called session.

Niki Jones, ACC Assistant Manager warned the commission about possible delays in contract issues complicating the event planning.

“Last year we tried to do too much, and we actually ran into some challenges related to contracting,” said Jones. “Our contracting process takes a really long time. And we would not recommend doing what we did last year.”

ACC Inclusion Officer Dr. Remy Epps raised similar concerns to the commission about its decision to postpone voting on the event planning.

“We need to make sure that we have adequate time to get you all the resources that you need,” Epps said. “I know we want to take a minute to just go back and kind of restructure some things and finalize things which is great, but just be mindful of the time.”

Chair Julita Sanders said that the commission has reached out to local activist Fred Smith, a board member of the Athens Historical Society, about being a keynote speaker for a Juneteenth event. Sanders said Smith will speak at Morton Theatre on June 8.

Sanders said there will likely be a budget of around $20,000 from various outside organizations for the Juneteenth celebration. Those funds would not be available for the Pride celebration, which will be funded by the Inclusion Office budget.

The commission, which has met since May of 2022, voted unanimously to approve the focus areas on its 2023 work plan. The Human Relations Commission also approved the activities and initiatives on the work plan, but they did not vote on the specific milestones and timeframes for the activities.

Approved activities included developing an action plan to raise community awareness of the commission and strategically coordinating stakeholder outreach activities. The approved focus areas and activities will be shared with the mayor at the next ACC Commission meeting.

Why I wrote this story…

During my News Reporting and Writing class, I was assigned the City and County Government Beat. This was an important story to write because 2023 will be the second year that Athens-Clarke County will recognize and celebrate Juneteenth and Pride month as official holidays.

Writing this story was a valuable experience in beat reporting. It was the first time I ever attended a government event to write a story on it. I learned how government committees work in their meetings and the kinds of obstacles that I might encounter in my reporting.