By Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside
The organizers who have been putting on Berkeley’s Juneteenth celebration for the last 27 years are expanding and will produce the first annual Berkeley Black History Celebration at a seven-hour free event on Saturday.
The theme of the celebration is “Harambee: Community Pulling Together,” and will feature music, historical exhibits, a short film, good food, games and an award ceremony, according to Gerald Baptiste Jr. the chair of the event.
The filmmaker Doug Harris will show a 10-minute clip from his film-in-progress about William Byron Rumford, the Berkeley state assemblyman who was instrumental in passing fair housing and fair employment legislation. Rumford, who died in 1986, was one of the state’s first African-American assemblymen.
The family-friendly celebration will take place at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. It will be free, in part because the city of Berkeley and the Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union have donated funds. Berkeleyside is a media sponsor for the event. Other sponsors include the Berkeley Unified School District, the NAACP, KPOO-FM, Berkeley High School’s African-American Studies Department, and Parents of Children of African Descent.