An event planned for the Juneteenth holiday at a North Carolina plantation recently led to backlash online for its offensive description and has since been pulled from the plantation’s website.
In the event listing that has since been removed, the Historic Latta Plantation, located in Mecklenburg County, near Charlotte, NC, invited guests to “hear stories from the massa himself who is now living in the woods. Federal troops (Yankees) have him on the run and his former bondsmen have occupied his home and are now living high on the hog.”
This event, labelled “Kingdom Coming”, was scheduled for Juneteenth (June 19), a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of all slaves.
Although the 13th amendment ended slavery in January 1863, it did not become effective in Texas until June 19, 1865, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Juneteenth celebrates that day, when Union troops marched into Galveston, TX, to free 250,000 slaves living in the state, said the museum.
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Responses to the Latta Plantation event listing noted the date and the offensive language in its description, which included “massa” and it’s assertation that “white refugees have been displaced and have a story to tell as well.”
“Racist twisted history is not actually history. Just FYI, there is no such thing as a ‘white refugee’. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sickening,” said one Facebook reviewer.
“Words cannot express the degree of anger, disgust, and disappointment that Latta Plantation elicits through its recent event promotion pictured here,” said another.
Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation operates the Latta Nature Center and Preserve where the plantation is located. In a Twitter post Friday, the county said it has “zero tolerance for programs that to not embrace equity and diversity.”
It went on to say that the county was not aware of the event until it was posted on social media and that it immediately contacted the plantation to cancel the event.
“As a result of this incident, Mecklenburg County is looking at its contract with the facility vendor regarding future programming,” said the Tweet.
In addition to this statement from the county, Huntersville, NC, -- the town the plantation is located in -- issued a statement about the incident on social media. The Huntersville statement said the municipality’s Board of Commissioners would reconsider providing an annual funding contribution to the plantation.
Charlotte, NC, Mayor Vi Lyles also weighed in on the issue and said the plantation “should know better.”
Historic Latta Plantation site manager and longtime plantation employee Ian Campbell – who explained that he is of African American descent – said in a statement on the plantation website that the description was misinterpreted.
According to Campbell, the intent of the event was to educate the public on the realities of the reconstruction period, not to glorify the Confederacy or white supremacy.
“To tell the story of these freedmen would be pointless if the stories of others were not included. Many of you may not like this but, their lives were intertwined, the stories of massa, the Confederate soldiers, the overseer, the displaced white families. How would we know how the enslaved became free or what their lives were like before freedom came? It didn’t happen with the stroke of a pen,” said Campbell.